SECOUn OOPY, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap. Copyright No* 

ShelfjLj. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




<~M. <cM^oaA/. 



HOPES THAT PERISH 



AND OTHER SERMONS, 



JAMES M. MELEAR, A. M., B D., 



PASTOR OF 



LUTTRELL STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 



KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE. 



PRICK gl.OO, POSTPAID. 



KNOXVILLE, TENN.: 

Ogden Bros. & Co., Printers and Bindek: 
1899. 



^ 



v%*» 



28612 



Entered according to Act of Congress, In the 
year IS!)'.), by J. M. Mblear, In the Office of the 
Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



*W©eOPIFS **r 



ceiven. 




Vbv4rA 



TO 

THE MEMORY 

OF MY LITTLE FRIEND, 

JAIVIEIS ROBINETTE, 

WHO SPENT FIVE HAPPY YEARS IN THIS WORLD. 

THEN WENT 

TO SPEND ETERNITY IN HEAVEN, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY THE 

. AU'LHDR. 



CONTENTS. 

I. Page 

Hopes that Perish 1 

II. 
Altruism 11 

III. 

Life at Flood-tide 29 

IV. 

Faithful Unto Death 41 

V. 

Tongue and Temper 53 

VI. 
The Master's School 60 

VII. 
The Fifth Commandment . . . . • . 78 

VIII. 
The Soul's Reinforcement 90 

IX. 

The Marriac4e Relation . . . . . 103 

X. 

Christ's Last Command .116 



HOPES THAT PERISH. 

I. 

"My hope is perished." — Lam. in, 18. 

Very few, if any, reach heaven with all their ex- 
pectations realized. With the dew of life's early 
morning upon our brow, full of youthful buoy- 
ancy, we cut our cables, give our streamers to the 
wind, little dreaming that the sea upon which 
we have embarked will be ruffled by any storm. 
Eor awhile hope sings her sweetest song, the 
gentle breezes waft us toward some fair island 
sparkling in radiant beauty like a gem of richest 
hue ; but before we reach its pearly shore, the 
calm zephyrs madden into furious blasts, our 
frail bark is caught in the teeth of the driving 
wind, and it may be that only on broken pieces 
of the ship we shall get safe to land. That was 
Paul's experience, when, with his two hundred 
and seventy-live men, he had weathered the 
storm for fourteen weary davs and starless 



2 HOPES THAT PERISH 

nights. Then, with mast and mainsail gone, the 
cargo thrown over to lighten the ship, they cast 
four anchors out of the stern and longed for day. 
When the gray dawn of the morning came, they 
took up the anchors, and loosening the rudder 
bands and hoisting the mainsails to the wind, 
they made toward the shore. Falling into a place 
where two seas met, they ran the ship aground. 
The fore part stuck fast, and remained immov- 
able, but the violence of the waves broke the 
hinder part, and the soldiers' counsel was to kill 
the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out 
and escape. But the centurion, who wanted to 
save Paul, kept them from their -purpose and 
commanded that those who could swim should 
cast themselves into the sea, and get to the shore. 
And the rest, some on boards, and some on 
broken pieces of the ship, escaped safe to land. 
\ T o matter then, if we are capsized in mid-ocean, 
if on a broken spar we can get safe home. For, 
once we have gained the fair haven, our song will 
be sweeter than the anthem of those who may 
have had little to hinder them. This thought is 
beautifully expressed by Mark Guy Pearse, who 
says: "There is a salvation, a full salvation, 
which we dream of and long for — as when a 



HOPES THAT PEBISH 3 

stately ship comes into the harbor, every stitch 
of canvas set and filled with the kindly evening 
breeze, the white foam flashing back from her 
bows; the. heavens all splendid with the sunset 
hues, the blue sea stretching away to where the 
dear ones wait to welcome us; and beyond the 
creeks, whence rise the overhanging woods that 
stretch away to the purple hills. There is such a 
salvation, it may be, for some — all sunny calm, all 
loA^ely peace, where the very winds and waves just 
wait with ready service. And yet it may be that 
among those who reach the heavenly home there 
are some whose song will be sweeter than that 
which these can sing — a song of victory over 
peril; a triumph the more rapturous for their 
struggle." 

Again, what often seems to be a blight upon 
our hopes is but the gentle dew of God's tender 
love, preparing them for fuller bloom. I have 
tried to regard in this light, the early death of the 
dear little boy to whom this volume is lovingly 
dedicated. I think the saxldest hour of my life 
was that Christmas morning, when, standing* be- 
side the casket containing his silent form, I looked 
down upon his beautiful white face and realized 
that he was dead. But two days had passed since 



4 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

he had gone to God. While going, he saw the 
mist of sorrow gathering in the eyes of his fond 
parents, and putting one hand upon the trembling 
lips of the weeping mother, the other upon those 
of the grief-stricken father, he said : "Don't, both 
of you," and fell asleep. God had taken him! 
But why could he not live? He was a child of 
unusual promise, with wisdom far beyond his 
years, it seemed to me. Why could not the sweet 
dream of his loving parents, and that of a host of 
admiring friends, be realized? The only explana- 
tion is, that death interrupts nothing. The 
Master needed him. 

"Death gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, 
He kissed their drooping leaves; 
It was for the Lord of Paradise 
He bound them in his sheaves. 

'My Lord hath need of these flow'rets gay,' 

The Reaper said and smiled; 
Dear tokens of the earth are they 

Where he was once a child. 

They all shall bloom in fields of light. 

Transplanted by My care, 
And saints upon their garments white. 

Those sacred blossoms wear." 

Another shock which made me silent, occurred 
while a student at the University. My room was 



HOPES THAT PEBISH 5 

one hundred and fourteen, while that of a young 
gentleman friend was one hundred and fifteen. 
He complained one day of a slight indisposition, 
but no one thought of anything serious. The 
next day he is in his place at the recitations. At 
night, after an hour or two of study, he retires. 
The next morning he does not rise. The best 
medical skill is employed, but to no avail. One 
evening just after the sun had gone down in the 
west, he sank away into the arms of death. 

He was preparing for the ministry, but before 
he could deliver his God-given message, He who 
presides over the general conference of the first 
born, had given him an appointmnet nearer the 
throne. His earthly hopes perished, but his study 
at the University was not in vain. He is finding 
ample opportunity to use his trained powers. He 
is preaching still. 

By our imperfect knowledge we can only parti- 
ally understand what God does. "We know in 
part." Thank God for the little we do know! 
With John Greenleaf Whittier we know : 

"That more and more a Providence 
Of love is understood. 
Making the springs of time and sense 
Sweet with eternal good: — 



6 HOPES THAT PERISH 

That death seems but a covered way 

Which opens into light, 
Wherein no blinded child can stray 

Beyond the Father's sight: — 

That care and trial seem at last, 
Through memory's sunset air. 

Like mountain ranges overpast 
In purple distance fair: — 

That all the jarring notes of life 

Seem blended in a psalm, 
And all the angels of its strife 

Slow rounding into calm. 

And so the shadows fall apart. 
And so the west winds play; 

And all the windows of my heart 
I open to the day." 

We know also, that all things work together 
for good to them that love God. We ought, 
therefore, to thank Him for every experience of 
life. We do thank Him for the bright things ; 
for the joys, and for the flowers. Let us be thank- 
ful for the thorns. 

"I thank Thee more that all our joy 

Is touched with pain ; 
That shadows fall on brightest hours; 

That thorns remain; 
So that earth's bliss may be our guide, 

And not our chain. 



HOPES THAT PEBISH 7 

And afterwhile. at eventide. 

It will be light. 
And as you then shall view the past. 

All will be right: 
For God sends naught within these days 
For which thou shalt not give Him praise." 

Sometimes He sanctifies us by the baptism of 
sorrow. Our withered hopes are put away under 
the flowers. Our loss is a great one, and yet we 
were never so rich, since God is anointing us for 
holier service. 

I am sure we can not study the life of that 
heroic missionary. Mary Reed, and not realize 
how much of God she saw in everything. 

She came home in 1890 to rest, and discovered 
that she was a leper. Then she planned to go to 
Pithora and spend her life among the lepers of 
India. I shall let one who traveled with her tell 
the story. 

"Here and there we held sweet hours of com- 
munion, and I, who had been accustomed to see 
missionaries seeking America in feeble condition, 
could not refrain from asking if it was right for 
her to return to India at an unfavorable season, 
before her health was established. Her lips quiv- 
ered, but her gentle, pleading voice grew steady 
as she replied: 'My Father knows the way I 
go, and I am sure it is the right way." 



8 HOPES THAT PERISH 

"It was in Paris that she said one evening, 'If 
I thought it was right, and you would promise 
never to speak of it until you heard it in some 
other way, I should tell you my story.' I told her 
if aught in me inspired her confidence, that was 
the surest safeguard of her secret. 

"On memory's walls there will hang, while time 
lasts for me, the picture of that scene. A wax 
taper burned dimly on the table beside her open 
Bible — that Book of all books, from whose pages 
she received daily consolation; and while, with- 
out. Paris was turning night to day with light and 
music and wine, within, Mary Reed's gentle voice, 
faltering only at her mother's name and coming 
sorrow, told the secret of her affliction. 

"As my throbbing heart caught its first glimpse 
of her meaning I covered my face to shut out the 
swiftly-rising vision of her future, even to the bit- 
ter end, and almost in agony I cried out, 'O, not 
that ! Do not tell me that has come to you !" 

Some of the fondest hopes of Mary Reed, 
turned their sweet faces to the wall and died, but 
with a faith that murmurs not, she sings: 

"No chance has brought this ill to me, 
'Tis God's sweet will so let it be. 
He seeth what I can not see. 



HOPES THAT PERISH 9 

There is a need be for each pain 
And He will make it some day plain, 
That earthly loss is heavenly gain." 

Amid the broken hopes of life, how comforting 
are the words of Isaiah : "He hath sent me to 
heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
captives, and the opening of the prison to them 
that are bound; to comfort all that mourn; to 
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give 
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness, that they might be called trees of right- 
eousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might 
be glorified." 

A lady was playing upon a piano before a small 
company of friends, when an eminent professor 
of music entered the room. She w r as greatly em- 
barrassed at his presence and struck a false note. 
Before it ceased to vibrate, he sprang to the in- 
strument, and touching the key, changed the dis- 
cord into a beautiful harmony. Often the music 
of life is pitched on a minor key, and we hear so 
many discordant notes till we are about to believe 
there is no harmony. But our great Teacher, 
sweeping His matchless fingers over life's jan- 
gling notes, brings forth the sweetest strains from 



10 HOPES THAT PERISH 

broken chords. And when the path leads 
through burning deserts where hopes perish, He 
shall be "as the shadow of a great rock in a 
weary land." And when the storms are raging, 
and we are ready to give up in despair, He will 
come treading down the angry' waves, saying, 
"Peace be still," and there shall be a great calm. 
He understands our sorrow and invites us to cast 
our burden upon Him, with the promise that we 
shall be sustained. 

Miss Fiske, the renowned Nestorian mission- 
ary, was delivering an address to the heathen 
gathered in the little chapel. She was in poor 
health and sat upon a mat while talking. Present- 
ly she felt a woman's form at her back and heard 
a voice saying, "Lean on me." She let her arm 
rest gently upon her friend, and the woman said, 
"Lean hard, if you love me, lean hard." So 
Christ says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We 
may pillow our weary head upon the bosom of 
divine consolation and hear His voice saying, 
"Lean hard, if you love me, lean hard." 

When Napoleon the Great was on his way to 
Russia, people stood patiently for days and nights 
to see him pass ; and it is related of a minister in 



HO PES THA T PERISH 11 

the north of Scotland, that he walked all the way 
to London to see the Duke of Wellington. But 
One greater than Napoleon, and mightier than 
the "Iron Duke," is passing by — Jesus of Naza- 
reth. When Napoleon and Wellington passed 
many who had traveled for miles could not get 
close enough to see the distinguished generals, 
and in turn were not seen by them. But when 
Jesus comes, He is accessible to every one, and 
marks with keenest interest the condition of all. 
He sees the blinding tears and knows how the 
heart aches. 

'"Be quiet, soul. Thy Master knows 

Thy trying day, 
And in the midst of pain and tears 

I hear Him say, 
I love thee still; cast all thy care 
Upon thy Lord, and leave it there." 

Oh, I would be willing to be the blind beggar 
and sit in darkness and hunger, if Jesus would 
pass by. I know He would bring the morning 
with Him and enable me to see its light. For 
when in my distress I cried, "Jesus, thou son of 
David, have mercy on me," He would put at my 
disposal all the power of God, for He would ask, 
"What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" 



12 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

Let me have a word here with those, who, real- 
izing the truth of the text in their own experi- 
ence, feel utterly discouraged. They are asking. 
"How can we ever take up the burdens of life 
again?" 

This question may find an answer in the fol- 
lowing illustration : 

When a great battle was being fought, the 
general ordered a young officer to charge and 
take the most destructive battery crowning 
a hill. The task appalled him. He looked 
toward the place where the order would take 
him. He saw the heavy siege guns of the 
enemy firmly fixed and belching forth death. 
Then turning to the general he said, "I can 
go, sir, if you will give me the grasp of 
your all-conquering hand." The grasp was 
given and the officer rode bravely away to exe- 
cute the command. Oh, discouraged soul, if you 
can feel the pressure of the all-conquering hand 
that was nailed to Calvary's cross, it will thrill 
you through and through, nerve you to any con- 
flict and crown you in the end with a glorious 
victory. 

Finally. What we lost during our mortal life, 
we shall regain when we enter upon life immortal. 



ROTES THAT TKIUSH 13 

'I watched the white sails as they spread 

Their wings, like birds set free; 
And some o'er distant waves will glide. 
Some in the wished-for haven bide, 

And some be lost at sea. 

And thus, upon life's changeful main. 

While Hope sang merrily. 
Full many a barque from off the strand 
We launched with eager heart and hand. 

Nor dreamt of loss at sea. 

But were their treacherous rocks and shoals 

All, all unknown to thee? 
It matters not — the heart doth know 
That cruel storm hath sunken low 

The venture out at sea. 

Mayhap it was no costly freight, 

Tho' rich to you or me; 
And memory, as the days go by, 
Still counteth o'er with tearful eye 

Her treasures lost at sea. 

Ah, well, there is a haven sweet 

Where shipwreck cannot be; 
Sad hearts, who sit in patient pain. 
There shall ye gather back again 

Much that was lost at sea." 



14 \ HOPES THA T PERISH 



II. 

■ ALTRUISM. 

"Bear ye one another's burdens." — Gal. vi, 2. 

The basal principle of monasticism is the in- 
herent evil of matter ; and that contact with peo- 
ple diverts the mind from religion. Accordingly 
the only safe course is for man to withdraw him- 
self from society, and thus isolated he might find 
a place for self-denial. In its first stage there 
was no movement toward a separate order. The 
next stage was the plan of living in certain lo- 
calities where the monks dwelt close together. 
The third stage was the organization of orders 
such as the Benedictines and other fraternities. 
The monks took three vows : perpetual fidelity 
to the life and order ; obedience to the head 
of the monastery ; and chastity and poverty. But 
while monasticism teaches that man must separ- 
ate himself from society, altruism holds that a 
religion which keeps man aloof from man is at 



ALTRUISM ; 15 

variance with every idea of the gospel. This al- 
truistic principle repeats the cry of another's sor- 
row, and makes his burden felt upon our shoul- 
ders. 

Drummond says : "To move among the peo- 
ple on the common street ; to meet them in the 
market-place on equal terms ; to live among 
them not as a saint or monk, but as brother-man 
with brother-man ; to serve God not with form or 
ritual, but in the free impulse of a soul ; to bear 
the burdens of society and relieve its needs ; this 
is the religion of the Son of Man." 

I. 

To exercise this spirit, we must recognize human 
weakness. 

There is nothing which a man is more likely 
to do than to commit sin. That is our nature. 
"The carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be." We are carnal, sold under sin. There are 
many theories of "Original sin." Pelagianism 
affirms that Adam's sin could not affect the race 
in any way beyond the influence of a bad exam- 
ple. Others tell us that the relation of Adam to 
his posterity is that of identity ; that is, Adam is 



16 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

the race. Again, it is said that he is a representa- 
tive of his race, and still again, that he is the fa- 
ther of his race. 

Our own church teaches that "original sin 
standeth not in the following of Adam, but is the 
corruption of the nature of every man. that nat- 
urally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
whereby man is very far gone from original 
righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to 
evil, and that continually." But we need not 
stop to reason on this question. The terrible fact 
that sin is here is admitted. It is also too sadly 
true that men are sinning against God and con- 
science and light; therefore, we are to remember 
the weakness of humanity, and when our brother 
is overtaken in a fault, restore him in the spirit of 
meekness. But we must confess with shame that 
this is not always done. When that young con- 
vert yielded to the tempter and wandered in for- 
bidden paths, did we say that we had expected 
nothing else? or did we tell him of the Christ who 
is married to the backslider, and who yearns after 
the wayward with an infinite tenderness? Many 
a person has been saved by a little interest shown 
at the right time. It may be that it was only a 
hand-shake that did it, for I have read of such an 



ALTRUISM 17 

instance. It occurred in a little prayer meeting. 
The minister was shaking hands with those pres- 
ent, two of whom, a married couple, he had never 
seen before. More than a year passed, when that 
family invited him to call on particular business. 
He went, and after the usual salutation, the wife 
showed him an elegant dressing-gown and told 
him it was for him. Then she said, 

"Do you remember the first evening my hus- 
band and I entered the little chapel, and how 
you came around and shook hands with us. 
Well, that hand-shake saved me from suicide, 
and this is a small expression of grati- 
tude I feel to him who saved my life." The 
minister's interest was thoroughly aroused and at 
his request she told the story of her husband's 
wicked life, and how habits grew worse, until, 
in despair, she had determined to end her sorrow. 
Then she thought of God and said to herself, ' I 
will go to the little chapel and see if there is any 
ray of hope shining there." To her surprise her 
husband consented to go with her. It was in this 
agony of soul she took her seat, and the warm 
grasp of the minister's hand lifted her into a new 

life. 

"If any little word of mine 

May make a life the brighter, 



18 HOPES THAT PERISH 

If any little song of mine 

May make a heart the lighter, 

God help me speak the little word, 

And take my bit of singing, 
And drop it in some lonely vale, 

To set the echoes ringing! 

If any little love of mine 

May make a life the sweeter, 
If any little care of mine 

May make a friend's the fleeter, 

If any lift of mine may ease 

The burden of another, 
God give me love, and care, and strength 

To help my toiling brother!" 

II. 

The Gospel forbids that any man should limit his 
service to himself. 

The warmth of the sun, the perfume of the 
flowers, the fruit of the trees, are for others. 

The life Christ lived was for others. That is 
why He lives to-day. He came not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister. He went about do- 
ing good, and thus immortalized His name. He 
sought the poor to make them rich, the sad to 
comfort their aching hearts. He took upon Him- 
self the form of a servant, and thus, like an all- 
pervading leaven, He is felt throughout christen- 



ALTRUISM 19 

dom. When His disciples were clamoring for 
prestige, He told them that the greatest should 
be servant of all. 

We are told that the pyramids of Egypt were 
built by those ambitious to be perpetuated in his- 
tory. Are they remembered No. Those crum- 
bling stones have never whispered their names. 
But look at the woman who anointed the Saviour. 
Wherever the gospel is preached her loving devo- 
tion to Christ is her memorial. 

'"The struggle that's only for self, 
No joy among angels may wake; 
But the brightest of crowns will be given 
To those who have struggled and striven 
For somebody's sake." 

"W r e then that are strong ought to bear the in- 
firmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 
Let every one of us please his neighbor for his 
good to edification. For even Christ pleased 
not himself ; but, as it is written, The reproaches 
of them that reproached thee fell on me." He 
tolerates no serfdom. In the presence of His 
cross there is no spiritual isolation. Life be- 
comes broad and complex. The sorrows of 
others mantle us in darkness ; their joys bathe us 
in sunshine. 



20 HOPES THAT PERISH 

The best way to serve God is to help man. 
This thought finds illustration in an image in the 
Cologne cathedral, representing a giant with a 
child upon his shoulders. The giant is Offero, 
the man searching for a master, and this is the 
story : Offero resolved to serve only the might- 
iest. Accordingly he was employed by an earthly 
king and served him faithfully, until the name of 
Satan was mentioned, and the king trembled. 
"Why art thou frightened, O king?" he asked. 
"Because Satan is mightier than I." Then 
Offero enlisted in the service of Satan, and one 
day while they were traveling, came to the cross- 
roads, where they beheld a cross. Satan refused 
to pass on. "Why art thou afraid?" asked Offero. 
"Because this Christ rules in heaven and is might- 
ier than I." Then Offero sought for Christ. He 
was told that if he would do good as he had op- 
portunity, Christ would reveal Himself. So the 
giant built a house on the bank of a river, and 
one stormy night he heard a voice calling, "Of- 
fero, come and carry me over." Crossing the 
stream, he found a child, and taking it upon his 
shoulders stepped into the water. Having 
reached the other shore he put down his burden, 
when Christ stood before him and said, "Inas- 



ALTBUISM 21 

much as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye 
did it unto me." He had found the Mightiest 
by serving the least. 

A little boy who, one evening watched the 
changing colors of the sunset sky, said to his 
aunt : 

"Auntie, I wish I were a painter.'' 

"Why, dear?" asked the lady. 

The child answered, "Because then I could help 
God paint the sky." 

But God does not need aid from any artist 
when He makes the sky beautiful. But He can 
use us to make beautiful and bright the life of 
those around us. 

"Take dow r n those saints, and coin them into 
shillings," said Cromwell, of the silver saints in a 
Catholic cathedral, "and send them about their 
Master's business." 

Dr. Louis Albert Banks uses the following 
beautiful poem, from Sam Walter Foss, to show 
how a Christian feels for his fellow-workers : 

''There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 

In the place of their self-content; 
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart, 

In a fellowless firmament; 
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 

Where highways never ran; 



22 HOPES THAT PERISH 

But let me live by the side of the road, 
And be a friend to man. 

Let me live in my house by the side of the road. 

Where the race of men go by; 
The men who are good and the men who are bad, 

As good, and as bad as I. 
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's bane; 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road, 
And be a friend to man. 

I see from my house by the side of the road, 

By the side of the highway of life, 
The men who press with the ardor of hope, 

The men who are faint with the strife. 
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears, 

Both part of an infinite plan; 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road, 

And be a friend to man. 

I know there are brook-gladened meadows ahead. 

x\nd mountains of wearisome height; 
And the road passes on through the long afternoon, 

And stretches away to the night. 
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice. 

And weep with the strangers that moan, 
Nor live in my house by the side of the road 

Like a man who dwells alone. 

Let me live in my house by the side of the road. 

Where the race of men go by; 
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are 
strong. 

Wise, foolish, and so am I. 
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's ban? 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man." 



ALTRUISM 23 



III. 



Men arc going to fall unless ive bear their bur- 
dens. 

When Bishop Fowler was in a mining shaft in 
the far West, and had to climb a perpendicular 
ladder two hundred feet high, he said that it 
seemed utterly impossible. Just then a strong 
Yorkshire man said. "I will help you." "Who are 
you?" asked the Bishop. The man answered, "I 
am a local preacher in the Methodist Church. I 
will follow after you. and if you should faint you 
can not fall past me." Says the Bishop, "I be- 
lieved him. His faith kindled mine, and I went 
up without fear and without nervous strain." 

As we climb the rugged road of life, often with 
weary feet and failing strength, how comforting 
to know that some loving friend will follow after 
us, and if we faint we cannot fall past him. 

An army was on the march and two soldiers 
walked side by side, one a stalwart fellow, the 
other frail and slender. The journey was telling 
on the latter, when his comrade said, "Let me 
carry your knapsack," and with thoughtful inter- 
est relieved him of his burden. So as we trudge 
over life's desert, there is a man bv our side who 



24 HOPES THAT PERISH 

is weary and heavy laden, and who will falter 
and fall if we do not strengthen him. 

"Every individual experience," says Dr. Hun- 
tington, "has, soon or late, its painful side, its 
crucial hours, when there is darkness over all the 
land, and we cry out to know if God has forsaken 
us. For the time, longer or shorter, we taste 
only the bitter, and feel only the thorns. The 
separations of death, the distance between our 
aspiration and performance, unsatisfied ambition, 
labouring year after year in vain, affection re- 
turned by indifference, the symptoms of fatal 
disease, former energy prostrate, a friend alien- 
ated, a child depraved, an effort to do good con- 
strued into an impertinence — unconquerable ob- 
stacles that we cannot measure and can scarcely 
speak of, heaped up against our best design — 
these are some of the frequent shapes of misery ; 
but no list is full." What is our attitude toward 
those who are thus burdened? The voice of en- 
treaty comes up from the depths of their broken 
hearts, crying as Paul did from the Mamertine 
prison : "Remember my bonds." 

One stormy night a father awoke to find his lit- 
tle boy standing by his bedside feeling for his 
hand. "Are you sick my child?" anxiously in- 
quired the father. 



ALTRUISM 2o 

"No 3 papa, I'm not sick." 

"Are you hungry?" 

"No, papa, I'm not hungry. But listen papa, 
don't you hear the storm? It is dark in my room 
and I was afraid in there, and I want you, papa, 
just you." 

Oh, my friends, there are thousand of God's 
lonely children to whom life is dark ; the awful 
storm has left them broken and bleeding and 
helpless, and they want you — you to cheer them ; 
you to weep with them ; you to save them from 
despair ! 

I said a moment ago that men were going to 
fall unless we bear their burdens. I come now to 
a still sadder truth — many have fallen and have 
no heart to rise unless we reach forth the helping- 
hand. I show you two dark pictures. Mew the 
first. A young man came from the country to 
the city. He obtained a good position. He 
wrote to his aged mother that he was doing well. 
She read the letter — read it again and again — and 
then with trembling hands removed her glasses, 
wiped away her tears, and kneeling down by the 
old-arm chair, thanked God for the success of her 
gifted son. 

But one nisrht this voting: man met some 



26 HOPES THAT PERISH 

wicked companions who dragged him through 
the sewers of iniquity, and now his morals are 
gone, his position is gone, and he is ashamed to 
go home. 

Mew the second. A young woman wandered 
away from home and went into sin. She is on 
the billows rowing against the tide. Her life is 
one of sorrow. Her face is bathed in tears. She 
is broken-hearted. But look! the oars have 
slipped from her weak hands, her strength is 
gone, and she is sinking beneath the whelming 
flood. Let us leave her there a moment and see 
what has become of the young man. We find 
him still "in the depths," utterly discouraged. 
Be quick! lift him up and lead him back to Christ, 
for there is no time to lose. Why? Have you 
forgotten the sinking girl? We were to leave her 
but for a moment, you know. Ah, would to 
God it were but for a moment! Too many leave 
her forever. Let us man the life-boat and go 
out for her rescue. But you will not go with me? 
Xo difference. I must throw out the life-line of 
God's mercy to her, and without stopping to look 
at her sinful life. I shall grasp her hand with 
Christ-like pity and invite her to the heart, to the 
compassion, to the pardon of Him who said : 



ALTRUISM 27 

"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no 
more." 

"We need not bid for cloister'd cell. 
Our neighbor and our work farewell. 
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high 
For sinful man beneath the sky. 

The trivial round, the common task 
Would furnish all we ought to ask: 
Room to deny ourselves; a road 
To bring us daily nearer God." 

In obeying this text, we fulfil the law of Christ. 
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil 
the law of Christ." What is His law? Sacri- 
fice. On the seal of the Baptist Missionary So- 
ciety is the figure of an ox, with a plow on one 
side and an altar en the other, with this inscrip- 
tion beneath : "Ready for either." So we must 
be ready to serve or stirrer. 

In the West Virginia mountains the falling 
rains swelled a stream that rushing down a gorge 
washed away a railroad bridge. The train was 
due in thirty minutes. What should be done to 
warn it of the unknown danger? A woman who 
lived by the side of the track piled up her furni- 
ture and set it on fire. Then she ran up the 
line waving a burning brand. The engineer 
saw the signal, reversed the ensrine and whistled 



28 HOPES THAT PERISH 

"down brakes." The train was stopped at the 
edge of the gorge, its passengers saved by the 
timely aid of the woman who had sacrified all 
she had. And she did that for the bodies of men. 
What ought we to do for their souls? She had 
no bed on which to rest that night, but she had 
fulfilled the law of Him who had not where to 
lay His head. ''Go, and do thou likewise." 

"Were the whole realm of nature mine. 
That were a present far too small; 
Love so amazing, so divine. 

Demands my soul, my life, my all." 



LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE 29 



III. 

LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE. 
"Covet earnestly the best gifts."— I. Cor. xn, 31. 

When Rowland Hill was preaching at Wotton 
he said: 

"Because I am in earnest, men call me an en- 
thusiast. But I am not; mine are the words of 
truth and soberness. When I first came into 
this part of the country, I was working on yonder 
hill. I saw a gravel-pit fall in and bury three 
human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for 
help so loud that I was heard in the town below, 
at the distance of a mile. Help came and rescued 
the poor sufferers." 

His enthusiasm saved the men. Earnestness 
is needed if we are to win success. A great re- 
former said: "I am in earnest, I will be heard," 
and he was heard. "Covet earnestly." While 
earnestness is first suggested by the text, it is the 
second thought — living at our best — upon which 
I wish to dwell. 



30 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

An aged artist sat before an unfinished picture. 
His eyes were failing and he knew he must re- 
sign the work to younger hands. "I commission 
thee, my son," said he, "to do thy best." After 
much hesitation, and with a high purpose, the 
young man began. The injunction, "Do thy 
best" rang in his ears. When the picture was 
finished, the aged artist gave it over into the 
hands of Leonardo da Vinci, for he was the 
young man who had sought to do his best. We 
are all painting upon the canvas of life. We ply 
our brush upon the foreground, the middle 
ground, the background. God grant us steady 
hands, clear conceptions and high ideals, so that 
each stroke may be a master-stroke, until at last, 
the picture finished, He who gave us our com- 
mission may say: "Well done." 

To do our best, we must have a great purpose 
in life. This thought is quaintly illustrated in a 
letter which appeared in the "Cumberland Pres- 
byterian" a month ago, and which I reproduce. 
"My Dear Nephu: 

W 7 hen I overheard you a-telliir Sis how much 
better you could of done in the debate last night 
if your cuffs had only hung half an inch lower, 
it sounded so much like vou are in general that 



LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE 31 

I had to snicker. I noticed you a-divin' up your 
sleeve, but s'posed mebby you had an argument 
or two tucked up there : you didn't seem to 
have 'em anywhere else. Now, 'Lias you re- 
mind me of the hunter that spent so much of his 
strength fightin' off gnats that he hadn't any left 
for eagles. You can judge the size of a man by 
the size of the thing it takes to fret him. It's a 
sure sign of a weak nature to let little things so 
domineer over you that they get in the way of 
your self-control an' success. The Africans tell 
of a monstrous animal with an eye so big that 
it was blind to anything as small as a good-sized 
monkey. I wish your soul was too big for short 
cuffs an' small sights an' mean little snubs. 
You can no more snub a feller who is sot on 
workin' out the mighty purposes of God than a 
boy on a raft could draw the fire of a fleet of 
battle ships. There was a little narrow-guaged 
engine down our way that blew its whistle so 
much at w T ood-chucks an' barking dogs that it 
got stalled on the grades. You can't stop to 
spit an' spat at little things that can't be helped, 
half of 'em because they're imaginary, an' have 
your strength left for the big things God wants 
you to do. Get a purpose into your life so big 



32 HOPES THAT PERISH 

that it will eclipse your little worries or else 
you'll be like Gulliver in Lilliput, fettered by a 
lot of pygmies. All that half the disheartened 
people in this world need to cure them of their 
sourness an' doubts is to get to work at some- 
thing- so big they won't have time for trifles. 
Your Uncle, 
JONATHAN HAYSEEDS." 

Uncle Jonathan's letter is full of good common 
sense. For it is certain that we cannot do our 
best until our ideal is high enough to lift us above 
petty things. "Hitch your wagon to a star." 
But, you say, "I will never have an opportunity 
to do a great thing." That may be true, but you 
can live a great life. Doing our best does not 
necessarily mean standing on the high places of 
the field, within the view of gazing eyes, and do- 
ing deeds of valor that will immortalize our name. 
That may not be ours, but we can fulfil faithfully 
the duties of a lower station, and this will make 
all life great. For when we do our work, not for 
the praise of man, but for Christ's sake, there is 
nothing insignificant. 

"Where God in generous fullness dwells, 
Nor small nor great is known ; 



LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE 33 

He paints the tiniest floweret-cells 
O'er emerald meadows strewn; 
And sees, but not with kinder eyes, 
The heavens grow rich with sunset-dyes; 
Both ministrant to beauty's sense, 
Both signs of one Omnipotence. 

He comes not forth with pageant grand 

His marvels to perform. 
A cloud 'the bigness of a hand,' 

Can blacken heaven with storm. 
A grain of dust, if He arrange, 
The fortunes of a planet change. 
An insect reef can overwhelm 
The stately navies of a realm. 

There are no trifles. Arks as frail 

As bore God's prince of old, 
On many a buoyant Nile stream sail 

The age's heirs to hold. 
From Jacob's love on Joseph shed, 
Came Egypt's wealth and Israel's bread; 
From Ruth's chance gleaning in the corn. 
The Psalmist sang, — the Christ was born." 

What often seems trivial is sometimes fraught 
with far-reaching- consequences. A remarkable 
illustration of this truth is recorded in the life of 
Rev. F. W. Robertson. It is thus related by the 
Rev. Mr. Davies : "The daughter of Lady 
French, at whose house I met my friend, had been 
seriously ill. She was prevented from sleeping 
by the barking of a dog in one of the adjoining- 
houses. This house was Captain Robertson's. 



34 HOPES THA T PERISH 

A letter was written to ask that the dog might be 
removed; and so kind and acquiescent a reply 
was returned, that Lady French called to express 
her thanks. She was much struck at that visit 
by the manner and bearing of the eldest son, and 
in consequence an intimacy grew up between the 
families." Of the influence of this acquaintance, 
Mr. Robertson writes : "If I had not met a cer- 
tain person, I should not have changed my pro- 
fession ; if I had not known a certain lady, I 
should not probably have met this person ; if that 
lady had not had a delicate daughter who was 
disturbed by the barking of my dog; if my dog 
had not barked that night, I should now have 
been in the dragoons, or fertilizing the soil of 
India." He says the barking of a dog led him 
to abandon military life for the ministry. 

If we can realize that God is in everything", we 
may say with George Herbert : 

"Teach me my God and King, 
In all things Thee to see, 
And what I do in any thing, 
To do it as for Thee; 

Not rudely as a beast, 

To run into an action; 
But still to make Thee prepossest, 

And give it his perfection. 



LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE 35 

A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine: 
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws 

Makes that and th' action fine. 

This is the famous stone 

That truneth all to gold: 
For that which God doth touch and own 

Cannot for less be told." 

Again, it is only when we are faithful in a few 
things, that we are prepared to be rulers over 
many things. In other words, the way to the 
highest is by the lowest. 

In the January number of Scribner's Magazine 
for 1899, you may see the picture of Wiliam Tif- 
fany. During the Hispano-American war he be- 
longed to the ''Rough Riders," and when CoL 
Theodore Roosevelt promoted him from Sergeant 
to Lieutenant, he said : ''Tiffany, I am especially 
glad to give you this step, because you are about 
the only man who has never by sign or word acted 
as though he thought he deserved promotion. 
There are some who are always very busy when I 
pass, and who look at me as though they meant 
to say, 'See how humble I am and how strictly I 
attend to my duties. You, who know how im- 
portant I am at home, will surely recognize this 
and make me an officer.' But you have never 



36 HOPES THAT PERISH 

acted as though you expected to be anything but 
a sergeant all your life, and you have done your 
work as though you had been a sergeant all your 
life, and so I am glad of this chance to make you 
a lieutenant." 

It requires faithfulness in details to reach per- 
fection. A friend of Michael Angelo called one 
day when he was working on a statue. Some 
time afterward he called again ; the sculptor was 
still working. When his friend saw the figure, he 
exclaimed : "Have you been idle since I saw you 
last?" "By no means," said the sculptor. "I have 
retouched this part and polished that: I have 
softened this feature and brought out this muscle ; 
I have given more expression to this lip and more 
energy to this limb." 

"Well, well/' said the friend, "all these are tri- 
fles." 

"It may be so," replied Angelo, "but recollect 
that trifles make perfection, and that perfection 
is no trifle." 

If we wish to reach the summit of a mountain, 
we must be content to climb. Should we desire 
ripe scholarship, we must study more than one 
lesson. The artist must touch the canvas often 
before the picture is finished. So he who seeks 



LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE 37 

the highest throne should first honor the foot- 
stool. 

If we possess the best gifts, the world will dis- 
cover it. The King, Ministers and Nobles who 
raised a monument to James Watt, inscribed 
upon the pedestal : 

"Not to perpetuate a name 
Which must endure while the peaceful arts flourish, 

But to show 
That mankind have learned to honor those 
Who best deserve their gratitude." 

On one occasion, when Haydn's "Creation" 
was to be rendered, the man in charge took fright 
and laid down his baton. The teacher who was 
to direct the choral part said to the committee, 
"1 know but one man who can help us out of our 
plight ; his name is Verdi, and he reads the most 
puzzling musical scores at sight. They sent for 
him. He came and though he had never seen a 
note of the difficult piece, he took direction of the 
oratorio and scored a great success. 

Again, we cannot do our best, without concen- 
trating all our force upon whatever we undertake. 
''This one thing I do." Napoleon's success came 
from breaking through the enemy's line at one 
point ; and one reason for his defeat at Waterloo 
was not following his usual plan. It is said that 



38 HOPES THAT PERISH 

Pericles knew only one street in Athens — the 
street that led from his home to the executive 
chamber. Spurgeon never went to dinner par- 
ties or public entertainments — he must preach, 
preach, preach. 

A little boy with a shovel in hand undertook 
to carry a ton of coal from the sidewalk to the 
shute. A gentleman who passed while he was 
thus engaged said, "Do you expect to shovel that 
all in?" "Yes, sir," said the boy, "if I keep at it." 

At the General Conference of 1896, I heard 
Mrs. Clinton B. Fiske relate an incident which 
deeply impressed me. There was an orphanage 
to which a strange lad had been brought. The 
first night after his arrival they were having pray- 
ers, when one little fellow made the following peti- 
tion : "O Lord, bless the new boy, and help him 
stick to his job." 

Chauncy M. Depew says that when Andrew 
Johnson wanted to remove from office Edwin AT 
Stanton, Secretary of War, Charles Sumner sent 
a message to the United States Senate saying, 
"Stanton, stick." It had a very wholesome 
effect. 

Another thing that will help us to live at our 
best, is to remember that it is God's work we are 



LIFE AT FLOOD-TIDE 89 

trying to do. and therefore, we cannot afford to 
slight it. Twin babes were sent to bless the home 
of a Hindoo family. One was a girl and blind. 
The mother concluded that the goddess Gunga 
was angry with her and she resolved to make a 
sacrifice to appease her wrath. So she threw the 
other babe into the Ganges. Some one asked her 
why she did not sacrifice the blind child. She 
said, "I could not offer the girl, the blind one, 
when I had a boy, a perfect child. That would 
have made Gunga only more angry. The God 
must always have the best." We pity the be- 
nighted mother, but let us learn the lesson — God 
must have the best. 

Lowell's lines "For an Autograph" have the 
right ring : 

'"Life is a leaf of paper white. 
Whereon each one of us may write 
His word or two. and then comes night. 

'Lo. time and space enough, ' we cry. 
'To write an epic' so we try 
Our nibs upon the edge, and die. 

Muse not which way the pen to hold. 
Luck hates the slow and loves the bold. 
Soon comes the darkness and the cold. 

Greatly begin! though thou have time 
But for a line, be that sublime. 
Not failure, but low aim is crime." 



40 HOPES THA T PEBISH 

Once more. There is such sweet comfort in 
the thought that if we try to do our best and seem 
to fail, God will make the pattern true. I ran 
across some lines the other day on "The Blind 
Weaver," in which this thought is beautifully ex- 
pressed. Ever since I read them they have kept 
ringing in my ears, and shall find a place here. 

"A blind boy stood beside the loom 
And wove a fabric. To and fro 
Beneath his firm and steady touch 
He made the busy shuttle go. 

And oft the teacher passed that way 
And gave the colors, thread by thread; 

But to the boy the pattern fair 
Was all unseen — its hues were dead. 

'How can you weave?' we, pitying, cried; 

The blind boy smiled. 'I do my best; 
I make the fabric firm and strong, 

And one. who sees does all the rest.' 

O, happy thought! Beside life's loom 
We blindly strive our best to do. 

And He who marked the pattern out, 
And holds the threads, will make it true." 






FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 41 



IV. 

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 

u Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from 
me. 1 ' — Job xxvn, 5. 

The rocks of Gibraltar have withstood the dash- 
ing of angry waves through all the centuries. 
They reach out their rugged arms in uttter defi- 
ance of flood and tempest. We want men like 
those wave-beaten rocks — men of moral fibre — 
heroes of principle who will not swerve from their 
convictions. But as Dr. Lorimer says, such 
characters are never produced in those youth who 
retire from the field before a shot is fired, and 
who never see anything worth fighting for, and 
who expect to be rescued by others from any in- 
convenience, and who would rather sell out the 
entire army than suffer annoyance or disability. 

God is here preparing character for eternity. 
He is working, not on inert matter, but on the 
throbbing heart of man. As the scientist in his 
laboratory controls forces, fuses metals and 



42 HOPES THAT PEEISH 

changes the form of things, so God is endeavoring 
to control our impulses, combine our purposes 
with His, and change our hearts till we are ready 
to say, "Till I die I will not remove mine integrity 
from me." 

I read of such a character in the Epworth 
Herald not long ago. He belonged to the 
Ninth Illinois Regiment, United States Volunteer 
Infantry, whose regimental camp was at Jackson- 
ville, Florida, last August. He cheerfully took 
his part in the drills and marches. But as the 
weeks went by, his strength failed, till one morn- 
ing he answered to the sick call of the buglers. 
The disease developed into typhoid fever, and the 
surgeon prescribed wine as a stimulant. The boy 
replied : "When I joined the army I promised 
that I would not swear, or drink or gamble, and 
I have kept my promise, and I don't propose to 
break it now." He grew worse, and one night 
his father in Southern Illinois received a telegram 
which read : "Come immediately if you want to 
see Will alive." Meanwhile the nurses tried to 
persuade him to drink the wine, so as to keep up 
his strength till his father came. His only reply 
was : "Father would rather find me dead and 
having kept my promise, than alive and the 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 43 

promise broken." He was still conscious when 
his father arrived. Lying - in the hospital ward, a 
thousand miles from home, the stupor of death 
settling down upon him, he greeted his anxious 
father with these words : "I kept my promise 
father. I didn't think it made so much difference 
if I did die, for that is what a soldier is for, some- 
times, but I didn't want to break my pledge." 

Three hours later, while the gathering shades 
of twilight were falling, the suffering soldier an- 
swered to the trumpet reveille of the ruthless 
Reaper, and passed to be with God, his promise 
unbroken. 

It requires moral heroism to do right under 
all circumstances. An incident is recorded in 
the life of "Tom Brown of Rugby" which serves 
my purpose to illustrate this thought. The new 
boy Arthur, from Devonshire, had just entered 
school. On the first night at the hour for retir- 
ing, he was shown to a room where there were 
twelve beds. It seemed strange to him to be with 
so many boys. At length he was ready to retire. 
Then came the struggle ! He had promised his 
mother that he would kneel down and pray every 
night. After some hesitation he dropped on his 
knees. Tom Brown was pulling off his boots. 



44 HOPES THAT PEBTSH 

A young fellow shied a slipper at the boy who was 
praying. Tom saw the cowardly act and threw 
his boot at the head of the intruder. 

"What do you mean, Brown?" said the bully. 

"Never mind," said Tom, "if any fellow wants 
the other boot he knows how to get it." 

Tom remembered that he, too, had made a sim- 
ilar promise to his mother, and how he had been 
wanting in courage to keep it. He fell upon his 
knees. When he had finished his prayer, he saw 
that two of his schoolmates had followed his ex- 
ample. What a victory he had won ! But it re- 
quired heroism. 

I bring before you another youth, and pray that 
his example may stimulate you to a nobler life. 
I refer to Daniel. He steered his soul in safety 
through the perils of a Babylonian court. 
Though away from home, the thought of duty did 
not fade from his vision. When he found that 
the meat which he was expected to eat, had been 
offered to idols, he purposed in his heart that he 
would not defile himself. "Sink or swim, live 
or die, survive or perish, I will not touch it." 
But Daniel, you are in Babylon now. Why not 
do as the Babylonians do? And then, your 
future is at stake. You are in the king's palace 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 45 

now, and will yon, by a little scruple destroy your 
chances for promotion? Hear him as he an- 
swers : "It is nothing to me whether I am in 
Babylon or Jerusalem. I believe the earth is 
the Lord's, therefore I must be careful what I do, 
no matter where I may be. I am not concerned 
about the future, for my times are in the hands 
of God. Xo matter what happens, I will not re- 
move mine integrity from me." 

In such a determination as this, there is a 
higher heroism than that of arms, and the world 
is coming to honor the man who dares to do 
right. A father and his son entered a restaurant, 
and on taking their seats at a table, the old man 
bowed his head and was about to return thanks. 
when a waiter came to take their orders. The 
orders were given, and again the father bowed his 
head. The son touched his arm and said in a 
low tone, "Father, it isn't customary to do that in 
restaurants.'' 

"It's customary with me to return thanks to 
God wherever I am," was the old man's reply. 
For the third time he bowed his head and the son 
followed his example. A telegraph operator 
bowed his head ; a reporter pushed back his plate 
and bowed his head, and everv man in the room 



46 HOPES THAT PERISH 

felt a profound respect for this old man who 
was accustomed to return thanks to God, no mat- 
ter where he was. God will honor such a man. 
"Him that honoreth me will I honor." There is 
an identity of interest between God and the man 
whose cause is right. Socrates expressed it when 
he said : "It is not allowed by Providence that a 
bad man should injure one better than himself. 
He may, indeed, put him to death, or send him 
into exile, or deprive him of civil rights ; but his 
real prosperity the wicked are powerless to in- 
jure." 

Again, since character is the most priceless 
thing in the world, we ought to guard it even at 
the cost of life. 

The ermine is a very fastidious little animal. 
Its hair is white as the driven snow. It is very 
shy, and to capture it is a difficult task. But if 
you will sprinkle dirt in its pathway it will lie 
down and subject itself to captivity and death 
before it will soil one white hair. We had better 
give up life than surrender integrity. 

There lived in Paris a poor but renowned artist. 
He was engaged on what he hoped to make the 
crowning work of his life. During the execution 
of this work it turned very cold. One night, 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 47 

after he had retired, it occurred to him that the 
freeze would cause his statuary to crumble. He 
arose, and taking the covering from his bed, 
wrapped it around the work of art. He then lay 
down without a single covering to warm his 
shivering body. Next morning they found him 
dead, but the image was preserved. 

The image of God is upon us. Let us preserve 
it at any cost. 

Two words governed the life of William E. 
Dodge — Christ and Conscience. When a great 
corporation was about to decide to carry on busi- 
ness on the Lord's day, he fearlessly said to the 
other directors : "If you break God's law for a 
dividend, I go out." 

When a Greek maid was asked what fortune 
she would bring her husband, she dropped her 
head a moment and said : "I will bring him what 
is more valuable than any other treasure, a heart 
unspotted, and virtue without a stain." 

Maintaining our integrity may sometimes mean 
standing alone. We can afford to do that for 
the joy that will follow, when an act is done in the 
fear of the King. To illustrate this truth I give 
the words of a minister spoken on an anniversary 
occasion in New York. He said : 



48 HOPES THAT PERISH 

"Thirty years ago two young men started out to 
attend Park Theatre, to see a play which made 
religion ridiculous and hypocritical. They had 
been brought up in Christian families. They 
started for the theatre to see the vile play, and 
their early convictions came back to them. They 
felt it was not right to go, but still they went. 
They came to the door of the theatre. One of 
the young men stopped and started for home, but 
returned, came up to the door, turned away again 
and went home. The other young man went in. 
He went from one degree of temptation to an- 
other. Caught in the whirl of frivolity and sin, 
he sank lower and lower. He lost his business 
position. He lost his morals. He lost his soul. 
He died a dreadful death, not one star of mercy 
shining on it. "I stand before you to-day," said 
the minister, "to thank God that for twenty years 
I have been permitted to preach the gospel. I am 
the other young man." He stood alone but his 
soul was singing. In contrast with him I place 
another young man. When he left home his 
mother gave him a Bible and said : "My son, 
all the satisfaction and comfort of my life has 
come from religion. Never leave your mother's 
hope if you would have a mother's solace." But 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 49 

this young man joined a club whose members did 
not believe in religion. One day he met a fatal 
accident. The physician said : "You cannot live 
more than an hour." His friends came and he 
said to them: ''Where shall I be to-morrow?" 
They said, "We will look after your wife and chil- 
dren." "Yes," said he, "but I shall be where 
hope can never come. I would give everything 
now for the assurance of spending eternity with 
my mother." He went with the crowd, but his 
soul was lamenting. 

It is a sad thing for a man to lose all sense of 
honor. Whittier has. given us a very lamentable 
picture of Daniel Webster in a little poem which 
he wrote concerning the political recreancy of this 
brainy statesman. 

"So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn 
Which once he wore! 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 
Forevermore! 

Of all we loved and honored, naught 

Save power remains — 
A fallen angel's pride of thought, 

Still strong in chains. 

All else is gone; from those great eyes 

The soul has fled. 
When faith is lost, when honor dies, 

The man is dead! 



50 HOPES THAT PERISH 

Then pay the reverence of old days 

To his dead fame; 
Walk backward, with averted gaze, 

And hide the shame." 

We have heard a great deal of late about 
heroes. But after all, life's victors are those who 
say : "Till I die I will not remove mine integrity 
from me." 

"I sing the hymn of the conquered, who fell in the battle 

of life— 
The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died over- 
whelmed in the strife; 
Not the jubilant song of the victors, for whom the 

resounding acclaim 
Of nations was lifted in chorus, whose brow wore the 

chaplet of fame. 
But the hymn of the low and the humble, the weary, 

the broken in heart, 
Who strove and who failed, acting bravely a silent and 

desperate part; 
Whose youth bore no flower on Its branches whose 

hopes burned in ashes away, 
From whose hands slipped the prize they had grasped 

at, who stood at the dying of day 
With the wreck of their life all around them, un- 

pitied, unheeded, alone, 
With death swooping down o'er their failure and all 

but their faith overthrown. 

While the voice of the world shouts its chorus — its 

paean for those who have won; 
While the trumpet is sounding triumphant, and high 

to the breeze and the sun 



FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 51 

Glad banners are waving, hands clapping, and hurry- 
ing feet 

Throriging after the laurel-crowned victors, I stand on 
the field of defeat. 

In the shadows, with those who are fallen and 
wounded and dying, and there 

Chant a requiem low, place my hand on their pain- 
knotted brows, breathe a prayer. 

Hold the hand that is helpless, and whisper, 'They only 
the victory win 

Who have fought the good fight, and have vanquished 
the demon that tempts us within; 

Who have held to their faith unseduced by the prize 
that the world holds on high; 

Who have dared for a high cause to suffer, resist, 
fight — if need be. to die.' 

Speak, History! who are life's victors? Unroll thy 

long annals, and say 
Are they those whom the world called the victors — 

who won the successor a day? 
The martyrs or Nero? The Spartans, who fell at 

Thermopylae's tryst. 
Or the Persians and Xerxes? His judges or Socrates? 

Pilate or Christ?" 

I covet for you all such a victory, and in your 
behalf and mine, make the petition which an old 
railroad man offered, soon after his conversion, 
when asked to lead in prayer. 

This is the way he worded it: 

"O Lord, now that I have flagged Thee, lift 
up my feet from the rough road of life and plant 



52 HOPES THAT PERISH 

them firmly on the deck of the train of salvation. 
Let me use the safety-lamp, known as prudence, 
make all the couplings in the train with the strong 
link of Thy love, and let my hand-lamp be the 
Bible. And, Heavenlv Father, keep all switches 
closed that lead off on the sidings, especially 
those with a blind end. O Lord, if it be Thy 
pleasure, have every semiphore block along the 
line show the white light of hope, that I may make 
the run of life without stopping. And, Lord, 
give us the ten commandments for a schedule ; 
and when I have finished the run, on schedule 
time, pulled into the great dark station of Death, 
may Thou, the Superintendent of the Universe, 
say, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant; 
come and sign the pay roll and receive your check 
for eternal happiness.' " 



TONGUE AND TEMPER 53 



v.. 

TONGUE AND TEMPER. 

"If any man among yon seem to be religious, 
and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his 
own heart, this man's religion is vain." — James 1, 26. 

"He that is slow to anger is better than the 
mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
taketh a city." — Prov. xvi, 32. 

Most people talk enough. Some quite too 
much. Having talked all day, they persist in 
keeping at it after they have gone to sleep. 
Speech is a great blessing. Without it, business 
would come to a standstill. Deprived of it, we 
could neither relate our joys, nor speak of our 
sorrows. Even beasts and birds and creeping 
things have some kind of language. The horse 
neighs, the dove cooes, and the cricket chirps. 
But have you ever stopped to think about the 
amount of talking you do? It has been esti- 
mated that a public speaker utters in an hour, 
words enough to cover fifteen octavo pages. Of 
course he would in the same length of time, in 



54 HOPES THAT PERISH 

ordinary conversation, nse many more. If all the 
words yon have used for the past ten years were 
printed, you would have a large library. But what 
would it be worth? Would you like to have it 
read? It is related of Dean Swift that being- 
present at an evening party, he took a seat in a 
corner of the room and commenced taking down 
what was said by those present. When asked 
what he was doing, he produced a verbatim re- 
port of what had been said. It is needless to add 
that most of the speakers were humiliated when 
they saw the superficial and trifling words they 
had said. "Let every man be swift to hear, slow- 
to speak." "Speech is silver, silence is golden." 

Xenocrates in Valerius Ma.vimus says : "I have 
been sometimes sorry that I spoke ; I have never 
been sorry that I kept silent." We should be 
silent unless our speech will glorify God and 
benefit man. Silence is often a sign of wisdom. 
"A fool uttereth all his heart." 

Phocian said to the Athenians, "You can't fight 
Philip. You have not the slightest chance with 
him. He is a man who holds his tongue ; he has 
great disciplined armies, he can brag anybody in 
your cities here ; and he is going on steadily with 
an unvarying aim toward his object; and you, 



TOXGUE AND TEMPER 55 

going' on raging from shore to shore with all that 
rampant nonsense." 

What a fearful description is given of the 
tongue in the epistle of James. "The tongue 
is a fire, a world of iniquity : so is the tongue 
among our members, that it defileth the whole 
body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; 
and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of 
beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of 
things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed 
of mankind : but the tongue can no man tame ; 
it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." An- 
other inspired writer said : "Death and life are in 
the power of the tongue." 

The thought of the text is, that he who has an 
unbridled tongue is not religious. "If any man 
among you seem to be religious — yes, seem to be 
religious — and bridleth not his tongue, but de- 
ceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain." 
Again, this same writer says : "If any man offend 
not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able 
also to bridle the whole body." 

When the Psalmist asks : "Lord, who shall 
abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy 
holy hill?" part of his answer is : "He that back- 
biteth not with his tongue." This is one of the 



56 HOPES THAT PERISH 

lowest crimes to which a man can stoop. Pope 
says : 

"The world with calumny abounds, 
The whitest virtue slander wounds, 
There are whose joy is, night and day, 
To talk a character away. 
Eager, from place to place they haste. 
To blast the generous and chaste, 
And — hunting reputation down, 
Proclaim their triumph through the town." 

Shakespeare, in speaking of the same char- 
acter, says: 

"Whose edge is sharper than the sword: 

Whose tongue outvenoms all the worms of the 
Nile; whose breath rides on the posting winds 
And doth belie all corners of the world — Kings, 
Queens, and states, maids and matrons, 
Nay, the secrets of the grave 
This viperous slander enters." 

Panl says : "The poison of asps is nncler their 
lips." Madame de Stael must have had a kindred 
thought when she made her retort to Monsieur 
de Choiseul. He had said some malicious thing 
about her, and sometime afterward she met. him 
and said : "Ah, it is a long time since I have seen 
you, Monsieur de Choiseul." 

"Ah, Madame de Stael, I have been ill." 

"Seriously, Monsieur?" 



TONGUE AND TEMPER 57 

"I had a narrow escape from being poisoned." 
"Alas ! Possibly yon took a bite of your own 
tongue." 

We ought to manifest a righteous contempt 
toward this pernicious practice. I have infinitely 
more respect for the man. who, under the cover 
of darkness, stealthily creeps in through my win- 
dow and steals my coat, than I have for the one 
who maliciously defames my character. 

"Who steals my purse steals trash: 
But he who filches from me my good name. 
Robs me of that which not enriches him. 
But leaves me poor indeed." 

"I hate the man who builds his name. 
On ruins of another's fame." 

"Low breathed talkers minion lispers 
Cutting honest throats by whispers." 

It may as well be said here as anywhere, that 
to listen to the tale-bearer is to lend him aid. It 
is a crime to pass bad money as well as to coin it. 
So the slanderer and the one who repeats his 
gossip, should be placed in the same category. 
"A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips ; and a 
liar giveth an ear to a naughty tongue.''' 

"Whoever keeps an open ear 
For tattlers, will be sure to hear 
The trumpet of contention; 



58 HOPES THA T PERISH 

Aspersion is the babbler's trade. 
To listen is to lend him aid. 
And rush into contention." 

Somewhere I have read that to credit common 
report is in itself a species of calumny. Give 
the street gossiper a wide berth. Let him under- 
stand that he cannot peddle such merchandise at 
your door. The man who drives through the 
alley, stops at your back gate and hauls away the 
garbage barrel has an honorable occupation com- 
pared with him who goes from place to place 
raking up every vile story that may be in circula- 
tion. 

Many would do well to make David's prayer 
their own : "Set a watch, O Lord, before my 
mouth ; keep the door of my lips." 

Especially ought we to guard our words when 
they are likely to wound ; for when once spoken 
they are beyond recall. 

Rose Terry Cooke, in a little poem entitled, 
"Unreturnmg," says : 

"Never shall thy spoken word 
Be again unsaid, unheard. 
Well its work the utterance wrought, 
Woe or weal — whate'er it brought; 
Once for all the rune is read. 
Once for a!l the judgment said. 
Though it pierced, a poisoned spear, 



TONGUE AND TEMPER 59 

Though the soul thou holdest dear; 
Though it quiver, tierce and deep. 
Through some stainless spirit's sleep; 
Idle, vain, the flying sting 
That a passing rage might bring. 
Speech shall give it fangs of steel. 
Utterance all its barb reveal. 

Give thy tears of blood and fire. 
Pray with pangs of mad desire. 
Offer life, and soul, and all. 
That one sentence to recall : 
Wrestle with its fatal wrath. 
Chase with flying feet its path: — 
Once for all thy word is sped: 
None evade it but the dead. 
All thy travail will be vain : 
Spoken words come not again.** 

Another thing- which should cause us to be 
careful what we say, is, that we are to give an 
account to the blaster for our words. "But I 
say unto you. that every idle word that men shall 
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day 
of judgment." 

W hen Bishop Latimer was arraigned on trial 
for heresy he heard the scratch of a pen, which 
warned him that what he uttered was being taken 
down, and he says he was very careful what he 
said. There is a record-book in eternity in which 
our words are written down. "I will take heed 
to my wavs that I sin not with my tonsfite." 



60 HOPES THAT PERISH 

But while the subject of tongue is large enough 
for an entire discourse, I must turn to the second 
part of my theme, which is temper. 

Tongue and temper are near relatives. 
Tongue introduces temper — sometimes not very 
politely, but the introduction is given neverthe- 
less. If we keep our tongue we are apt to keep 
our temper. You hear people say, "I lost my 
temper." What a pity they couldn't lose it ! 
But that is not the word. The trouble is, they 
find their temper. When an English philoso- 
pher arranged that two thousand persons should 
be put under watchful eyes for the purpose of 
studying their disposition, without their knowl- 
edge, he found more than one-half were bad 
tempered. I know there are many things calcu- 
lated to provoke us, but the Youth's Companion 
has the following, which shows that a man may 
control his temper under most trying circum- 
stances: 

"It is said of Thomas Bailey Aldrich that he 
once received a letter from his friend Professor 
Edward S. Morse and found the handwriting 
wholly illegible. Mr. Aldrich was not at a loss 
for an answer. In due time, there came to Mr. 
Morse the following reply : 



TONGUE AXD TEMPER 61 

"My Dear Morse : 

It was very pleasant to receive a letter from 
you the other day. Perhaps I should have found 
it pleasanter if I had been able to decipher it. I 
don't think 1 mastered anything: beyond the date, 
which I knew, and the signature, at which I 
guessed. There is a singular and perpetual charm 
in a letter of yours — it never grows old and it 
never loses its novelty. One can say every 
morning as one looks at it: "Here's a letter of 
Morse's I haven't read yet. I think I shall take 
another shy at it to-day. and maybe I shall be 
able in the course of a few years to make out 
what he means by those t's that look like w's and 
those i's that haven't any eye-brows!' Other let- 
ters are read, and thrown away and forgotten. but 
yours are kept forever — unread. One of them 
will last a reasonable man a lifetime." 

In contrast with this even-tempered man. is 
a young girl of whom Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster 
speaks when writing about "Unconscious Revela- 
tions.''* This girl came sweeping along on her 
bicycle with graceful ease, and looked the per- 
sonification of gentleness. Yet when another 
girl, evidently just learning to ride, narrowly es- 
caped colliding with her. the expert rider ex- 



62 HOPES THA T PERISH 

claimed in great rage : "Great Scott ! I wish you 
would look where you are going!'' Continuing, 
Mrs. Sangster says : "I saw that my beautiful 
maiden was not like the King's daughter, 'all 
glorious within.' She was impatient, she was 
hasty of speech and temper, and she failed to 
make allowance for the inexperience of another. 
I was saddened, and I wish with my whole heart 
that the young girl could realize how unfortunate 
for herself was the frame of mind and the habit 
of petulence which had made possible her impet- 
uous remonstrance. Life may discipline her by 
greater trials than the clumsy blunder of a fellow- 
traveler on the road, and by and by she may 
learn to repress the vehement word of irritation. 
But what I long for, when I think of her and of 
thousands like her, is that they may not feel the 
impulse to needless vexation with the errors or 
even with the carelessness of others." 

Our first impulse is to resent an injury or an 
unkindness. A German politician, replying to the 
slanders of the press, exclaimed in the German 
Parliament : "God keep us from a breed of states- 
men with hearts of lead and hides of leather. Let 
us have men whose blood moves to their cheeks 
when lies are flung in their faces ; for it is no 
ideal of mine to become acclimatized to liars." 



TONGUE AND TEMPER 63 

That is one way to deal with injuries. Here is 
another: An aged man, who, when asked to 
answer some attaek upon his character, replied : 
"For many years my character has taken care of 
itself, and I am not going to begin to defend it 
now. ' 

Jesus was silent under injury. "When He was 
reviled, He reviled not again." When He was 
dying, He prayed for His murderers. He taught 
us that love is not easily provoked. When the 
Bibile of Bishop Kerr was examined after his 
death, it opened spontaneously at Paul's wonder- 
ful chapter to the Corinthians on charity. So the 
life of Christ opened and closed there — begin- 
ning and ending in love. 

Self-mastery is a great achievement. "He that 
is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he 
that ruleth his sp.'rit than he that taketh a city." 
We are accustomed to say that Caesar, Alexander 
and Napoleon are the three mightiest of this 
world, but he who succeeds in conquest of self 
is greater than them all. 

Did you ever try to keep patient for one day? 
If you did, and succeeded, how happy you were 
when night came. You felt like singing: 



64 HOPES THAT PERISH 

"Give me joy. give me joy, O my friends; 

For once in my life has a day 
Passed over my head and out of my sight, 

And my soul has naught to unsay. 
No querulous word to the fair little child 

Who drew me from study to play; 
No fretful reply to the hundred and one 

Who question me, gravely and gay; 
No word to the beggar I fain would take back, 

No word to the debtor at bay; 
No angry retorts to those who misjudge. 

And desire not a nay, but a yea; 
No word, though I know I remember them all. 

Which I would, if I could e'er unsay. 
Give me joy, give me joy. O my friends. 

For the patience that lasted all day! 

I cannot close this sermon without saying that 
our time is short, and that it will be worse than 
wasted, if we use it for saying angry words, or 
manifesting an ungenerous spirit. 

"They are slipping away, these sweet, swift years. 

Life a leaf on the current cast; 
With never a break in the rapid flow, 
We watch them, as one by one they go 

Into the beautiful past. 

One after another we see them pass 

Down the dim-lighted stair; 
We hear the sound of their heavy tread 
In the steps of the centuries long since dead, 

As beautiful and fair. 

There are only a few years left to love. 
Shall we waste them in idle strife? 



TONGUE AND TEMPER 65 

Shall we trample under our ruthless feet 
Those beautiful blossoms, rare and sweet. 
By the dusky way of life? 

There are only a few swift years — ah! let 

No envious taunts be heard; 
Make life's fair pattern of rare design. 
And rill up the measure with love's sweet wine. 

But never an angry word." 



66 HOPES THA T PEEISH 



VI. 

THE MASTER'S SCHOOL. 

"Learn of me. 11 — Matt, xi, 29. 

Jesus is an impressive teacher. He is thor- 
oughly acquainted with His subject, has the gift 
of imparting knowledge, and knows the needs 
of all who attend His school. He is very orig- 
inal, borrowing nothing from others. His lan- 
guage is so plain that the common people hear 
Him gladly. His enthusiasm does not depend 
upon numbers, for He talks as earnestly to Nico- 
demus, or the woman at the well-side as He 
would to a thousand immortal souls. His text- 
book is the Bible. There is free tuition, and His 
school is open day and night. He governs well, 
for His school is under perfect discipline. He 
believes that he who spares the rod spoils the 
child, so He sometimes whips His scholars. But 
every stroke is measured by love. He takes pains 
to tell us this. "For whom the Lord loveth He 






THE MASTER'S SCHOOL 67 

chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He 
receiveth." He knows it hurts, but tells us that 
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of right- 
eousness unto those who are exercised thereby. 
He teaches with authority, for God has employed 
Him. He knows His pupils will be influenced 
more by example than by precept, and tells John 
to write : "I have given you an example." 

O, blessed Master, register our names in Thy 
catalogue, and teach us what we need to learn. 

And first, let us come to Him for the lesson of 
Optimism. That word is from the Latin, optimus, 
and means the best. An optimist is one who 
believes that all events are ordered for the best, 
and who tries to see the best in everything. Jesus 
was an optimist. There are some pessimists who 
ought to be in His school. They never see the 
best in anything. Nothing pleases them. It is 
always too hot or too cold. 

"When it's hot they want it cold. 
When it's cold they want it hot. 
Always wanting what is not." 

If they go to church, the singing is too high or 
too low, the preaching is too loud or too long. 
They are determined to be miserable and try to 
make others feel the same wav. Thev may try to 



68 HOPES THAT PERISH 

excuse themselves by saying that they have been 
deceived and wronged and therefore have lost 
faith in everybody and everything. But was not 
Jesus mistreated? As "Ian Maclaren" says: "A 
huge conspiracy encompassed Him, and labored 
for His death; one of His intimates betrayed 
Him; the priests of God produced false witnesses 
against Him ; the people He loved clamored for 
His death ; the Roman power He had respected 
denied Him justice ; He was sent to the vilest 
death. During His long ordeal, His serenity 
was never disturbed ; He was never angry save 
with sin. He never lost control of Himself or 
became the slave of circumstances. His bequest 
to the disciples was Peace, and He spoke of Joy 
in the upper room. He was so lifted above the 
turmoil of this life, that Pilate was amazed ; and 
amid the agony of the Cross, He prayed for His 
enemies. Nothing has so embittered men as 
utter poverty or social injustice. Jesus endured 
both, and maintained the radiant brightness of 
His soul. His was optimism set in the very 
heart of pessimism." 

We often fail to see the best because we do not 
look for it. Last Wednesday evening when I 
entered the prayer-meeting, a good woman 



THE MASTER'S SCHOOL 69 

handed me a box and asked : "Do you like oats?" 
That was a stunner. I have never eaten oats, 
but my impression is that there are some things 
more palatable. Supposing, however, that she 
meant oat-meal, I answered her question in the 
affirmative. She then handed me a box marked 
"Quaker Oats." The next morning I took it 
to my boarding-house and told the landlady she 
might use the contents for breakfast food. When 
I went back to dinner she said : "Did you open 
that box?" I told her I did not, when to my 
surprise she exclaimed : "Well, it is full of cake." 
I took a peep at it and saw fruit-cake, sponge- 
cake, chocolate-cake, and yet another kind, the 
name of which I have quite forgotten. I thought 
I was going to be fed on oats, when lo ! I was to 
be feasted on cake. 

A lady entered a car on a road upon which she 
had frequently traveled. She was tired and to 
her great satisfaction found a very comfortable 
seat. Turning to the conductor, she said : 
"What delightful seats these are ! How long- 
have you had them on this train?" "How long," 
he said, "I'm sure I don't know. Ever since you 
have been going on this train, I suppose, only 
you have never happened to take one of them 
before." 



70 HOPES THAT PEEISH 

As the train sped on she thought: "This is 
very like the way we do in our Christian life ; 
quite too much like the way I have been doing of 
late. Perfect comfort, rest for body and soul, 
is prepared for me, and has been waiting 
for me ever since I began to travel the heaven- 
ward journey, but I have never taken possession 
of it. I have jolted along over the rough places 
most uncomfortably, when I might have rested in 
the Lord. I have never noticed these comforta- 
ble seats before, yet this man says they have been 
here a long time ; but I have taken my place in 
another car without looking to see whether the 
train afforded anything better. I'll not make the 
same mistake again. It is wise to take the best 
in everything as we go through this world. And 
if wise to do so in temporal things, how much 
more in things spiritual. Why should I not have 
the best? I will surely hereafter inquire more dil- 
igently what my privileges are, and I will take 
possession of all the Lord has provided for me." 

Mr. M. A. Kidder, in his poem "The Golden 
Side," says : 

"There is many a rest in the road of life. 
If we only would stop and take it; 
And many a tone from the better land. 
If the querulous heart would make it. 



THE MASTER'S SCHOOL 71 

To the sunny soul that is full of hope. 
And whose beautiful trust never faileth. 
The grass is green and the flowers are bright 
Though the winter storm prevaileth. 

Better to hope though the clouds hang low. 

And to keep the eyes still lifted, 

For the sweet blue sky will soon peep through 

When the ominous clouds are lifted. 

There was never a nigh" without a day. 

Or an evening without a morning; 

And the darkest hour as the proverb goes. 

Is the hour before the dawning. 

There is many a gem in the path of life. 
Which we pass in our idle pleasure. 
That is richer far than the jeweled crown 
Or the miser's hoarded treasure; 
It may be the love of a little child. 
Or a mother's prayers to heaven. 
Or only a beggar's grateful thanks 
For a cup of water given. 

Better to weave in the web of life 

A bright and golden filling. 

And to do God's will with a ready heart 

And hands that are swift and willing. 

Than to snap the delicate, minute threads 

Of our curious lives asunder. 

And then blame heaven for the tangled ends. 

And sit and grieve and wonder." 

Secondly. We learn from the Master the lesson 
of prayer. And here our need is great, for we 
know not what we should pray for as we ought. 
But we may come as did the disciples, with the 



72 HOPES THAT PERISH 

request, "Lord, teach us to pray." He knows 
the lesson, for He was a man of prayer. He 
prayed in Gethsemane. He prayed on the Cross 
of death. He prayed in all His great emergen- 
cies. So He teaches not only a form of prayer, 
but also its necessity. He places it as a preven- 
tative against entering into temptation, and 
makes it the condition of finding grace to help in 
time of need. 

There are those who tell us that the only benefit 
of prayer is its reflex influence upon him who 
prays. They say God is absolutely independent 
of all that is outside of Himself. His will has 
determined what is to be, and since He is un- 
changeable, therefore prayer can not move Him, 
or cause Him to do what otherwise would not be 
done. This might be true if God were only one 
Person. But there are three Persons in God — the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "When," as Mr. 
Murray says, "eternal Love begat the Son, and 
the Father gave the Son as the Second Person a 
place next Himself, as His Equal and His Coun- 
sellor, there was a way opened for prayer and its 
influence in the very inmost life of Deity itself. 
Just as on earth, so in heaven, the whole relation 
between Father and Son is that of giving and 



THE MASTER'S SCHOOL 73 

taking-. And if that taking is to be as voluntary 

and self-determined as the giving, there must be 
on the part of the Son an asking and receiving." 
God had said : "Thou art my Son ; this day have 
I begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee 
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for thy possession." Jesus 
had full confidence that the Father heard His 
prayer. When He stood at the grave of Lazarus. 
He said : "Father I thank thee that thou hast 
heard me." He knew also that God would hear 
His children if they prayed in His name. "Ver- 
ily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall 
ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask 
and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." 

Let us honor that all-prevailing Name, and ask 
Jesus to teach us to pray. 

Thirdly. The lesson of meekness and humility 
must be learned from Christ. "I am meek and 
lowly in heart." He taught that the way to 
thrones would lead through the valleys — that 
humility should be recognized as the counterpart 
of exaltation. He taught the disciples a new 
lesson on prestige when He reminded them that 
whoever attained greatness must become the 



74 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

servant of all. Ruskin has well said: "I believe 
humility is the first test of a truly great man. 
I do not mean by humility doubt of his own 
power or hesitation of speaking his opinions, but 
a right understanding of the relation between 
what he can do and say and the rest of the world's 
sayings and doings. All great men not only 
know their business, but usually know that they 
know ; they are not only right in their main opin- 
ions, but usually know they are right in them; 
only they do not think much of themselves on 
that account. Amain knows that he can build a 
good dome at Florence ; Albert Durer writes 
calmly to one who has found fault with his work, 
"It cannot be better done;" Sir Isaac Newton 
knows that he has worked out a problem or two 
that would have puzzled anybody else; only they 
do not expect their fellow-men, therefore, to fall 
down and worship them." 

Lord, teach us to be meek, and then we shall 
inherit the earth. 

Fourthly. IV c learn from the Master the lesson of 
self -sacrifice. 

A mother watches over her suffering child with 
loving devotion, and though wan and weary, re- 
fuses to leave its bed-side till its early life goes 



THE MASTEB'S SCHOOL 75 

out in death; Sir Philip Sydney, mortally wounded 
in the battle at Warnsfeld, his lips parched with 
thirst, refuses a drink of water, saying to his 
attendants, "Give it to that poor wounded man 
near me; his sufferings are greater than mine;" 
General Johnson, sorely wounded at the battle of 
Shiloh, when he learns that many others are 
wounded, including a large number of the enemy, 
orders the surgeon to leave him and give them his 
services, saying, "These men were our enemies 
a moment ago; they are prisoners now. Take 
care of them." But long before the anxious 
mother kept midnight vigil over her sick child; 
long before Sydney refused to drink, that another 
might slake his burning thirst ; long before John- 
son died with the command upon his pallid lips. 
"Take care of the enemy," there had been An- 
other who sought in tenderest love to soothe the 
suffering, and when His course on earth was 
finished, went to the altar of His cross, there 
to suffer in bitterest agony, refusing to save Him- 
self that He might save others. 

Finally. We come to Him for the lesson of 
resignation under suffering. I know He prayed 
for the cup to pass. I have never wondered at 
that. With all our sins and sorrows pressed into 



76 HOPES THAT PERISH 

it, it were enough to make it bitter. But with the 
same breath He asked for its removal, He also 
said: "Nevertheless not what I will, but what 
thou wilt." 

A Christian woman whose sufferings were pro- 
tracted and intense, said : "I would not have one 
pain less, if this is the will of God my Father." 
Her pastor called to see her. She took his hand, 
saying: "Ask our Father, please, that I may 
give a good testimony to His sustaining grace." 
Ah, that is it, a good testimony to His sustaining 
grace, for that grace is sufficient. Did not Paul 
find it so when he wanted the thorn removed? 

Somewhere I have read that there shall be mo- 
ments in which our Gethsemane shall reveal no 
flower, in which the cup shall not pass, in which 
the legions of angels shall not come; yet strange 
to say, we shall be strong. For we shall fly 
without pinions, walk without feet, breathe with- 
out air, praise without words, laugh without sun- 
shine, bless without knowing why, and our joy 
shall be only from God. 

"Dear Christ, because the way 
That Thou didst walk on earth was sorrowful, 

And they that seek it find oft marked with blood 
Thy footprints, shall I say, 



THE MASTEB'S SCHOOL 



11 



'Give me a sunnier path, more flowers to cull. 

And all the things that this world calleth good?' 

And, turning from the sound 
Of Thy meek voice, whose pleading 'Follow me' 

Seems not so sweet as others' whispering 'Come,' 
And which so soon is drowned 
In earth's loud music, shall I say to Thee, 

'I choose this world; here finds my heart its home?' 

Nay, tender, patient Friend! 
Though sorrowful that way, take Thou my hand 
And lead me in it. Though I cannot see 
Through blinding tears its end, 
It matters not, I know 'tis to the land 

Where longing hearts meet face to face with Thee. 

'Twill often lead, I know. 
Away from earth, to many a lonely height. 

From which the world will seek to tempt me by 
The many flowers that grow 
Beside its pathways, and which, to the sight. 
Are fair and gay, but ah, so quickly die. 

And as I journey on, 
I know my feet must one day reach the gate 
Of some sad Garden of Gethsemane, 
Where I must kneel alone 
In darkness, as Thou didst, and pray that Fate 
Will take away some cup she pours for me. 

And if, O perfect One, 
Thou say'st these trembling lips that cup must drink, 
Quiet their sobbing, till they say with Thee, 
'Father, Thy will be done.' 
And when I feel Thee near I will not shrink. 
But to its dregs will drink it silently." 



78 HOPES THAT PERISH 



VII. 
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 
"Honour thy father and thy mother." — Ex. xx, 12. 

After Christ had caught a vision of the 
relation He sustained to His heavenly Fa- 
ther's business He returned to Xazareth and 
for eighteen years was subject to his parents 
"YYe are thus taught that parental authority 
is a divine ordinance. Young people there- 
fore should accept this truth and yield a 
loving obedience to parents. Honor thy father. 
Yes, the father should not be overlooked. When 
we preach on the training of children, let us not 
address the entire sermon to mothers. Mother- 
hood is sacred, to be sure, but so is father-hood. 
He is not in the nursery as much as the mother, 
because he must be at the store or in the field, 
toiling for the comforts of a material home. Hold 
his name sacred. Encircle him with love, and 
fill 'his declining years with comfort. History 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 79 

records that three brothers entered the Olympic 
games and were victors. When they returned 
with the garlands they put them on their father's 
brow, and he was so overjoyed that he dropped 
dead. And I want all young people who hear 
me, to twine some wreath of joy for their father's 
brow. Or if perchance the broken veteran has 
gone to wear a fadeless crown, then take your 
fairest flowers where his body sleeps in dreamless 
slumber, and leave them as love's tribute to his 
precious memory. 

We read that Joseph was a favorite with his 
father, and I have no doubt that it was due, in a 
measure, to his filial respect and obedience. See 
how he treated him when he came down into 
Egypt to see his son before he died. Joseph 
made ready his chariot and went to meet him. 
After the weeping is over, he will present him to 
Pharaoh. Why, Joseph, he is one hundred and 
thirty years old, and cannot stand as erect as 
when he made for you the coat of many colors. 
And then he has come a long distance in a wagon 
and his hat is dusty, his shoes are not polished 
and may soil the carpet. Xo difference, and he 
ushers him into the royal palace and says: 
"Pharaoh, King of Egypt, this is my father! 



80 HOPES THAT PERISH 

What next? He gives him a possession in the 
land of Rameses, the very best in all that country. 
And then when he dies, Joseph with military es- 
cort takes his lifeless form to the family burial 
ground at Machpelah and inters it beside Rachel, 
Joseph's mother. The blessing of the Lord Cod 
of Abraham will be upon such a son as that. 

When Troy was burning, /Eneas takes An- 
chises, his father, upon his shoulders and carries 
him away from the doomed city. 

Dr. Talmage pays the following tribute to his 
father: "He walked through many a desert, but 
every morning had its manna, and every night 
its pillar of fire, and every hard rock a rod that 
could shatter it into crystal fountains at his feet. 
More than once he came to his last dollar, but 
right behind it he found Him who owns the cat- 
tle on a thousand hills, and out of whose hands 
the fowls of heaven peck their food, and who 
hath given to all His children a warranty deed for 
the whole universe in the words, 'All are yours.' 
Through how many thrilling scenes he had 
passed! He stood, at Morristown, in the choir 
that chanted when George Washington was 
buried. He talked with young men whose 
grandfathers he had held upon his knee. He de- 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 81 

nounced at the time Aaron Burr's infamy. He 
saw the United States grow from a speck on the 
world's map till all nations dipped their flag at 
our passing merchantmen, and our 'national 
airs' were heard on the steeps of the Himalayas. 
He worked unweariedly from the sunrise of youth 
to the sunset of old age, and then in the sweet 
nightfall of death, lighted by the starry promises, 
went home taking his sheaves with him. Mount- 
ing from earthly to heavenly service, I doubt not 
there were a multitude that thronged heaven's 
gate to hail him into the skies — those whose sor- 
rows he had appeased, whose burdens he had 
lifted, whose guilty souls he had pointed to a 
pardoning God, whose dying moments he had 
cheered, whose ascending spirits he had helped 
upon the wings of sacred music. I should like 
to have heard that long, loud, triumphant shout 
of heaven's Avelcome." Honor thy father. 

Honor thy mother. An old rabbi said: "God 
could not be everywhere and so He made moth- 
ers.'' John Randolph was saved from infidelity 
by the remembrance of the time when his mother 
took his hand in hers and taught him to say: 
''Our Father who art in heaven." 

When a little bov asked his mother which char- 



82 HOPES THAT PERISH 

acter in "Pilgrim's Progress" she most admired, 
he received the reply, "Christian, of course; he 
is the hero of the story." "I don't," said the son; 
"I like Christiana best; for when Christian went 
on his journey, he started alone; but when Chris- 
tiana went, she took the children with her." It 
was the potent cry "My son! My son!" of 
Volumnia the mother of Coriolanus that saved 
Rome. 

We get our first impressions from her and carry 
them with us to the grave. Some years ago a 
company of Indians were captured and it was 
discovered that there were several stolen children 
among them. They had been captives for years. 
When this fact became known, many, whose 
children had been stolen, came, hoping to find 
their own. Among the number who came was 
an anxious mother who had been robbed of a 
boy and girl. But to her great sorrow she saw 
no face that was familiar; nor was she recognized 
by any one. She was turning away in despair, 
when she paused, and began to sing a hymn 
which she had often sung to her children before 
they were stolen. She had not finished the first 
stanza till a young man and woman ran up to 
her exclaiming, "O mamma! mamma!" and she 
folded her long lost ones to her heaving bosom. 



THE FIFTH COyiMANDMENT 88 

Bishop Vincent gives us an insight into his 
childhood and the lasting influence of h's mother, 
when he says: "Beyond the holy place was the 
'holy of holies.' For fifteen years that I can re- 
member, it was my mother's custom to take the 
children into her own room after the regular 
Sabbath evening song and prayer. In the dark- 
ness, in the twilight* or in the moonlight, we 
followed her. And there seated together with- 
out a light she would talk in a tender way 
about eternity and duty, about our faults as 
children, her anxiety about us, her intense 
desire for our salvation, how we ought to be 
more patient with each other, more cheerfully 
obedient to father, more guarded in our speech. 
Then we knelt together, and she prayed. And 
how she could pray! Living with God seven 
days a week through all the weeks, when she 
brought us, her children, to the mercy seat on 
Sabbath evening was not heaven opened, and did 
not the place seem holy ground, and can anyone 
wonder that her children cannot recall those 
scenes without a thrill and a flood of tears and a 
vow of renewed consecration?" 

A mother is the first one who greets us with 
love and the last who gives us up. 



84 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

"If I were hung on the highest hill, 
I know whose love would follow me still, 
O, mother o' mine, O, mother o' mine. 

If I were drowned in the deepest sea, 
I know whose tears would come down to me, 
O. mother o' mine, O, mother o' mine. 

If I were damned of body and soul, 
I know whose love would make me whole, 
O, mother o' mine, O, mother o' mine." 

O. W. Holmes says: "Youth fades; love 
droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's 
secret hope outlives them all." 

Lord Shaftesbury says: "Give me a genera- 
tion of Christian mothers, and I will undertake to 
change the whole face of society in twelve 
months." 

"God thought to give the sweetest thing 

In His almighty power 
To earth: and deeply pondering 

What it should be, one hour. 
In fondest joy and love of heart 

Outweighing every other. 
He moved the gates of heaven apart 

And gave to earth — a mother." 

Do we value such a friend as highly as we 
should? Do we let her wash the dishes and 
sweep the house, when by doing so ourselves, we 
might rest her tired hands, and keep the wrinkles 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 85 

from her beautiful face? Do we try in every 
way to honor her? President Garfield paid a 
touching tribute of respect to his mother after his 
inaugural address, when he turned, and stooping 
down imprinted an affectionate kiss upon her 
thin, withered lips, as much as to say: "I re- 
member how you toiled and sacrificed for the 
children after father died. Some little honor has 
at last come to me, but I take from my brow the 
laurels the people have placed there, and I put 
them on your brow where they properly belong." 
What remarkable devotion was manifest by 
President McKinley during the last illness of his 
aged mother. With the cares of a nation weigh- 
ing heavily upon his heart, he finds time to hasten 
from Washington, in order that he may minister 
to her last want. When he reaches the sick 
room, his sister Plelen says: "Mother, here is 
William. If you recognize him hold out your 
hand." The aged sufferer is almost unconscious 
but seems to make an effort to extend her hand 
which is eagerly grasped by the President. He 
has brought some beautiful flowers from the con- 
servatory of the White House, and selects from 
them a white lily — emblem of her own purity — 
and thoughtfully places it in her hand. Death 



86 HOPES THA T PERISH 

will soon release her hold on it, but when she 
passes to where flowers eternal bloom, she will 
remember it as love's offering from her devoted 
son. 

Have you ever thanked God for a Christian 
mother? As you think of her and the altar where 
she taught you to pray; as you recall the merri- 
ment around the fire in the long winter evenings, 
you sing with Mary Burr Banks: 

"O, the five-o'clock chime brings the coziest lime 

That is found in the whole of the day. 
When Larry and Gus and the others of us 

Come in from our study and play. 
When we push the big chair to the hearth over there. 

And pile the wood higher and higher. 
And we make her a space in the very best place — 

And mother sits down by the fire. 

There's a great deal to say at the close of the day. 

And so much to talk over with mother; 
There's a comical sight or a horrible plight. 

Or a ball game, or something or other; 
And she'll laugh with Larry, and sigh with Harry, 

And smile to our heart's desire 
At a triumph won or a task well done — 

When sitting down by the fire. 

Then little she'll care for the clothes that we tear, 

Or the havoc we make on her larder; 
For the toil and the strife of our every day life 

She will love us a little harder; 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 87 

Then our lady is she. and her knights we would be, 

And her trust noble deeds will inspire: 
For we long then anew to be generous and true — 

When mother sits down by the fire." 

The penalty attached to disobedience to par- 
ents, under the Mosaic law was death. "If a 
man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which 
will not obey the voice of his father, or the 
voice of his mother, and that, when they have 
chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then 
shall his father and his mother lay hold on him. 
and bring" him out unto the elders of his city, 
and unto the gates of his palace: and all the men 
of his city shall stone him with stones, that he 
die." 

In Proverbs we are told that "The eye that 
mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his 
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, 
and the young eagles shall eat it." 

But on the other hand notice the reward 
promised to those who accord reverence and 
obedience to parents. "Honor thy father and 
thy mother: that thy days may be long upon 
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 

I have heard of a little girl who interpreted this 
passage in an amusing way. It seems that her 



88 HOPES THAT PERISH 

mother wanted her to stay in doors on Sunday, 
and in the evening, after having sat in the house 
all day, the child said: "Mamma, have I hon- 
ored you to day?" "I don't know," replied the 
mother; "why do you ask?" "Because," said the 
little one, "the Bible says, 'Honor thy father and 
thy mother ; that thy days may be long ;' and this 
has been the longest day 1 ever saw!" 

As I speak on this subject I am reminded that 
some who hear me are away from the restraints 
of home. Don't forget to send a letter to the 
dear ones who eagerly watch for it. How it will 
cheer them to know that they are not forgotten. 
The following beautiful lines were sent to a 
mother on her birthday: 

"From this home on the hills to that o.her. 
Across the wide fields, far away, 
I send you love's greeting, dear mother, 
And the fondest, best wishes to-day. 

How memory and love go together 

To the bright, happy days that are gone. 

When the chestnut-brown locks of my mother. 
Were beauty itself to her son! 

To the time when, with sisters and brothers, 

And with father so noble and strong, 
I was blest with the dearest of mothers, 

And with happiness all the day long. 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 89 

But, though your dear locks are now silver; 

They're beautiful still to your boy 
As the sunlight that played on the river 

Near the home of his innocent joy. 

From the old-fashioned garden I'd gather 

The prettiest flowers that grow. 
And on the dear brow of my mo:her 

To-day a bright garland bestow. 

Dear father, dear sister, dear brother. 

Dear children, let's make her a crown. 
And wish, on this day. for dear mother. 

Full many a happy return! 

And now. clasping hands with each other. 

We'll gather around her and say; 
'God bless you! We love you, dear mother. 

And bring vou these tokens to-dav." " 



90 HOPES THAT PEBISH 



VIII. 

THE SOUL'S REINFORCEMENT. 

"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed 
is the man that trusteth in him."— Psa. xxxiv, 8. 

The thought of God's infinite wisdom over- 
whelms us; His purity awes us; His eternity 
amazes us ; but His goodness comforts us. The 
text therefore cheers us. "The Lord is good." 
"They shall utter abundantly the memory of thy 
great goodness." "Goodness and mercy shall fol- 
low me all the days of my life." The word "God" 
is from the same root as the word "Good." 

But it may be asked: "If God be good why 
does He permit evil to exist?" The problem of 
theodicy is to reconcile the existence of evil with 
the goodness of God. Fatalists, Materialists 
Pantheists, Dualists, and Atheists say there are 
no contingencies; and theodicy with them has no 
importance. But whence came evil? Dr. Ray- 



THE SOUL'S REINFOBCEMENT 91 

mond says: "Sin and evil exist by the divine 
permission;" and he shows that man has no just 
cause to complain against the goodness of God 
because there is ever present with him an all- 
sufficient remedy for his ill; not a means of re- 
moving it but a support under it. Continuing he 
says: "That God is good, no man can reason- 
able doubt; that evil exists, all men know cer- 
tainly; that the two are reconcilable one with the 
other is, therefore, beyond question; but how, to 
human thought, they are to be reconciled, is yet 
a question, and it may so remain till God Himself, 
in the final issues of man's earthly history, shall 
vindicate his ways, and every knee shall bow and 
every tongue confess that God hath done all 
things well." 

We have a proof of the goodness of God in His 
dealings with sinners. His day is desecrated, His 
name is blasphemed, His law is trampled under 
foot. Rut how long suffering He is! "He hath 
not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us 
according to our iniquities." "It is of the Lord's 
mercy that we are not consumed." 

We have here also a hearty invitation to be- 
come partakers of God's goodness. "O taste 
and see." The natural impulse of a soul on be- 



92 HOPES THAT PERISH 

coming acquainted with Christ is to bring others 
into the same blessed relation. Andrew brought 
his brother Simon to Jesus. Philip brought Na- 
thanael. Moses invited Hobab, saying, "Come 
thou with us and we will do thee good: for the 
Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." And 
when Hobab refused, saying, "I will not go; but 
will return to my own land;" Moses was so in- 
tensely in earnest, that he cried out, "Leave us 
not, I pray thee." 

Another thought which I wish to impress is 
this: Personal contact with Christ is sufficient 
to remove all unbelief. "Taste and see that the 
Lord is good." 

Nathanael asked Philip, "Can there any good 
thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip did not 
argue the claims of Christ, but simply said 
"Come and see." 

On this subject Dr. J. M. Buckley finds ma- 
terial for a strong editorial, which appears in The 
Christian Advocate, Jan. 10, 1899. He says: 

"The reasons men assign for ignoring the 
claims of Jesus are many, but the great majority 
of them have their foundation in either an unwil- 
lingness to consider these claims, or in ignorance 
concerning the character of Jesus, and the trans- 



THE SOUL'S REINFORCEMENT 93 

forming power which it exerts over the hearts 
and lives of men. To many Jesus is but a name, 
not a personality; or an historic character, not a 
living or potent force. They hesitate to look 
with favor upon the supernatural because they 
are so completely immersed in the natural. Of 
them it may be said that their eyes are holden 
that they cannot see Him. They claim that there 
are many things relating to Jesus and to the 
Christian faith that they do not understand, and 
that they are inclined to think are beyond human 
comprehension, and they are slow to subscribe 
to what they do not clearly apprehend. 

"No one will claim that a veil of impenetrable 
mystery does not still enshroud Jesus, the Saviour 
of men. But that fact does not constitute a suf- 
ficient reason for His rejection. The world is full 
of mystery and some of the commonest things of 
life that are the fullest of mystery and simply baf- 
fle investigation are accepted without question, 
and men order their lives in accordance with 
them. Why, then, should the objection be raised 
with reference to Jesus and His relation to the 
soul life ?/ ' The editor then goes on to show that 
this failure to apprehend Christ fully, should lead 
to closer stuclv of His life, and that no one can 



94 HOPES THAT PERISH 

understand Him at a distance, but that personal 
contact and spiritual accord with Him will re- 
veal Him in a way both startling and satisfying 
to the most stubborn unbeliever. "Taste and 
see." 

I call your attention in the next place, to the 
reinforcement that comes to a soul that has faith 
in God. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in 
him." 

1. He is blessed with a consciousness of spirit- 
ual strength. "I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me." He is strong 
in the Lord and in the power of His might. 
Christians tell us they cannot do this, that or the 
other duty. Why? They are "out of touch" 
with Christ. 

"Only a smile, yes, only a smile, 

That a woman o'erburdened with grief 

Expected from you; 'twould have given her relief, 
For her heart ached sore the while; 

But weary and cheerless she went away, 

Because, as it happened, that very day 
You were 'out of touch' with the Lord. 

Only a word, yes, only a word. 

That the spirit's small voice whispered 'Speak;' 
But the worker passed onward unblessed and weak, 

Whom you were meant to have stirred 
To courage, devotion, and love anew, 



THE SOUL'S BEINFORCEMENT 95 

Because, when the message came to you, 
You were 'out of touch' with your Lord. 

Only a note, yes, only a note 

To a friend in a distant land; 

The spirit said 'Write,' but then you had planned 
Some different work, and you thought 

It mattered little. You did not know 

'Twould have saved a soul from sin and woe — 
You were 'out of touch' with your Lord. 

Only a song, yes, only a song. 

That the Spirit said, 'Sing to-night, 

Thy voice is thy Master's by purchased right;' 
But you thought. ''Mid this motley throng, 

I care not to sing of the city of gold;' 

And the heart that your words might have reached 
grew cold — 
You were 'out of touch' with your Lord. 

Only a day, yes, only a day, 

But O! can you guess my friend. 

Where the influence reaches, and where it will end. 
Of the hours that you fritter away? 

The Master's command is, 'Abide in Me;' 

And fruitless and vain will your service be 
If 'out of touch' with your Lord." 

"Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy 
power." Trust brings power. Yonder in a 
tenement house is a poor girl dying. By her 
side is a woman soothing her with the promises 
of God. Who is this woman? I do not know 
her name. I onlv know that faith has reinforced 



96 HOPES THAT PERISH 

her soul, and that the joy of the Lord is her 
strength. 

2. He is blessed with a sense of personal sc- 
eurify. In 1665, Cromwell sent Whitelock as en- 
voy to Sweden*. The nation was greatly dis- 
tracted. Whitelock could not sleep at night. 
A confidential servant said: "Pray, sir, will you 
give me leave to ask you a question?" 

"Certainly." 

"Pray, sir, don't you think God governed this 
world very well before you came into it?" 

"Undoubtedly.'' 

"And pray, sir, don't you think that He will 
govern it quite as well when you are gone out 
of it?" 

"Certainly." 

"Then pray, sir, excuse me, but don't you 
think you may as well trust Him to govern it 
as long as you are in it?" 

Whitelock made no reply, and turning about, 
soon fell asleep. 

Trust enabled Moses to fear net the wrath of 
Kings. It nerved Caleb and Joshua to withstand 
the mighty current of rebellion. It made Ne- 
hemiah, in a time of great peril exclaim : 
"Should such a man as I flee?" It strengthened 



THE SOUL'S REINFORCEMENT 97 

Luther at the Diet at Worms. He was sum- 
moned there and promised safety. Before start- 
ing he wrote to Spalatm: "If his majesty calls 
me to account, so that I am ruined, and am 
looked upon, on account of my answer, as an 
enemy to the empire, still I am ready to come. 
For I have no intention of fleeing, nor of leav- 
ing the word in danger, but I mean to confess it 
unto deatn, so far as Christ's grace sustains me. 
But I am certain the blood-hounds will not rest 
till they have put me to death." Having finished 
his defence, he said: "Here I stand, I cannot do 
otherwise. God help me! Amen." 

God makes such a soul His constant compan- 
ion. He places on his brave bosom the badge 
of honor. He makes him the instrument of ful- 
filling His word. He gives him a beatific vision 
that rises above all clouds. He holds him with 
an anchorage that all the swelling billows can- 
not move, and flecks his firmament with stars of 
hope that darkness cannot quench. 

This trust made Paul secure when from Mile- 
tus he sends to Ephesus for the elders of the 
church. He tells them of serving the Lord with 
all humility of mind — tells of tears and tempta- 
tions which befell him by the lying in wait of the 



98 HOPES THAT PERISH 

Jews — tells of how he had taught publicly, and 
from house to house, testifying both to the Jews 
and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God 
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "And now," 
says he, "behold I go bound unto Jerusalem, not 
knowing the things which shall befall me there: 
save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, 
saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But 
none of these things move me, neither count I 
my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish 
my course with joy, and the ministry which I 
have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
gospel of the grace of God." 

"He holds no parley with unmanly fears, 
Where duty bids, he confidently steers. 
Faces a thousand dangers at her call, 
And trusting in his God, surmounts them all." 

3. He is blessed with exemption from all anx- 
iety. We have a Father who always helps. A 
young man found himself in financial straits, 
without knowing what to do to escape adversity. 
His father learned of his embarrassment and sent 
him a telegram which read: "Draw on me for 
what you want." He went at once to the bank 
for all the money he needed. Let us receive our 
heavenly Father's word with equal confidence. 



THE SOUL'S BEINFOBCEMENT 99 

"My God shall supply all your need according to 
his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." That is a 
check large enough to cover our deepest need, 
and it is better to trust in the Lord than to put 
confidence in princes. God is able to do exceed- 
ing abundantly above all that we ask or think. 
He can fulfil every promise He makes. When 
Abraham's faith was tested, "he staggered not at 
the promise of God through unbelief, but being 
fully persuaded that what he had promised he 
was able to perform." 

David trusted Him when he said: "I shall 
not want." That includes spiritual and physical 
wants. The Lord provides for soul and body. 
When we do our part we can always claim the 
divine promise. 

A husband remonstrated with his wife for be- 
ing so cheerful in the midst of misfortune, but 
what a beautiful lesson her calm trust teaches us. 



" 'Good wife, what are you singing for? You know 

we've lost the hay. 
And what we'll do with horse and kye is more than I 

can say; 
While like as not, with storm and rain, we'll lose 

both corn and wheat.' 
She looked up with a pleasant face, and answered 

low and sweet: 



100 HOPES THAT PERISH 

'There is a Heart, there is a Hand, we feel, we cannot 

see; 
We've always been provided for, and we shall always 

be!' 

He turned around with sullen gloom. She said, Love, 
be at rest; 

You cut the grass, worked soon and late, you did 
your very best. 

That was your work; you've naught to do with wind 
and rain, 

And do not doubt but you will reap rich fields of gol- 
den grain; 

'There is a Heart, there is a Hand, we feel, but cannot 
see; 

We've always been provided for, and we shall always 
be!' 

'That's like a woman's reasoning — we must because 

we must.' 
She softly said: 'I reason not; I only work and 

trust; 
The harvest may redeem the hay; keep heart whate'er 

betide; 
When one door's shut I've always found another open 

wide.' 
'There is a Heart, there is a Hand, we feel, but cannot 

see; 
We've always been provided for, and we shall always 

be!' 

He kissed the calm and trustful face; gone was his 

restless pain; 
She heard him, with a cheerful step, go whistling down 

the lane. 
And went about her household tasks; full of a glad 

content, 



THE SOUL'S BE1NF0BCEMENT 101 

Singing to time her busy hands as to and fro she 

went; 
'There is a Heart, there is a Hand, we feel, but cannot 

see; 
We've always been provided for, and we shall always 

be!' 

Days come and go — 'twas Christmas-tide, and the 

great fire burned clear. 
The farmer said: 'Dear wife, it's been a good and 

happy year; 
The fruit was grain; the surplus corn has bought the 

hay you know.' 
She lifted then a smiling face and said: 'I told you 

so;' 
'For, there is a Heart, there is a Hand, we feel, but 

cannot see; 
We've always been provided for, and we shall always 

be!'" 

O, brother, sister, we can trust such a Friend! 
We can rely upon the Omnipotence of Him who 
called Lazarus from the tomb; who, rising from 
sleep, saved the sinking ship ; who converted Saul 
of Tarsus on his way to Damascus ; who sent the 
demoniac to his home, clothed and in his right 
mind; who inspired the martyrs to a heroic death, 
and who enabled Job to say: "Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust in him." 

Do you know anything against Him that He 
should not be trusted? Did He ever do anything 



102 HOPES THAT PERISH 

No, no. Surely then, we can trust Him, living 
dying, and forever. 

It was of Him Whittier sang when he wrote: 

"I know He is. and what He is 
Whose one great purpose is the good 
Of all. I rest my soul on His 
Immortal love and Father-hood. 
And trust Him as His children should. 

I fear no more. The clouded face 
Of nature smiles; through all her things 
Of time and space and sense I trace 
The moving of the Spirit's wings. 
And hear the song of hope she sings." 



THE MAR HI AGE RELATION 103 



IX. 

THE MARRIAGE RELATION. 

,v Be ye not unequally yoked together.' 1 — n Cor., 
vi, 14. 

Marriage is a divine institution. It was or- 
dained of God in infancy of time, when the young 
world was sparkling in the dews of eternity. 
Jesus sanctified and adorned this relation by his 
presence and first public miracle in Cana of Gal- 
lee, and Paul declared it to be honorable among 
all men; not to be entered into unadvisedly, but 
reverenly, discreetly, and in the fear of God. 

Man naturally seeks companionship. It is re- 
lated of an Italian nobleman, whose married life 
was unhappy, that he took his only son when a 
mere boy. to the mountain fastnesses where he 
might never see a woman till he became a man. 
When twenty-one years of age, he brought him 
to the foot of the mountain to attend a banquet. 
There were manv beautiful girls in attendance. 



104 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

When he saw them, he asked: "Who are those 
creatures?" "My son," replied the father, "They 
are devils, black-eyed devils. I have had experi- 
ence with one of them, and they are dangerous." 
The evening was spent in viewing many beautiful 
works of art. When they had completed the in- 
spection, the father said to his son, "What would 
you rather have of all that you have seen?" The 
young man answered, "Father, I would rather 
have one of those black devils than all else in 
the world combined." 

But the text warns us against being unequally 
yoked together. 

1. There ought to be, so far as possible, an 
equality in mental acquirements. A man with fine 
literary taste will find a more congenial compan- 
ion in a woman who is likewise intellectually in- 
clined. They will live in the same intellectual 
world. But should there be a vast difference be- 
tween their accomplishments, his world will not 
interest her, and hers will not please him. 

2. Be not unequally yoked morally, or with un- 
believers. Eliza Ambert, a young woman of Paris, 
discarded a gentleman to whom she was engaged 
because he ridiculed religion. When she gently 
reproved him, he said : "A man of the world can- 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION 105 

not be so old-fashioned as to regard God and re- 
ligion." "Then," said Eliza, "from this moment 
sir, I cease to be yours. He who does not love 
and honor God can never love his wife con- 
stantly and sincerely." 

A woman takes a great risk when she marries 
a bad man, hoping to reform him. The Western 
Christian Advocate says : "The execution of mil- 
lionaire Arthur Duestrow, of St. Louis, for the 
murder of his wife and baby-boy should point a 
moral for all women contemplating marriage. 
Duestrow was the pampered son of wealth. He 
had a profession, but his riches left no incentive 
to practice it. Money brought good-cheer and 
gay fellowship, indulgence, and sin. Look at 
him when his wife accepted him — young, tal- 
ented, handsome, social rank. rich, with an ample 
fixed income, but, "fast." She took her chances. 
She immersed herself in a conjugal hell. Her 
only escape was by the cruel bullets he fired into 
her shrieking body and through the head of her 
little boy! It seems plain enough now, her 
awful mistake. But, doubtless she was envied by 
many a girl in her set." 

"Right now another Duestrow is paying court 
to a lovely girl, dazzling her with his wealth 



106 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

and accomplishments. She knows his vices, but 
what are these to an assured place in society, sup- 
ported by ample means? Wait, girl; long 
enough, at least, to look into the chamber of hor- 
rors, where the drunken brute, heedless of his 
wife's agonizing entreaties, empties his revolver 
into her body and into the head of their prattling 
babe. Such an ending is a hundredfold more 
probable than the husband's reformation and 
faithful love. Though he were a prince, and of- 
fered you the crown jewels, and yet were a 
drinker and debauchee, my dear girl, spurn him 
as you would a deadly viper!" 

It is a false principle which condemns in wo- 
man what it condones in man. If she steps aside 
from virtue's path, the finger of scorn is pointed 
at her, while he who robbed her of her purity, 
walks the streets with unblushing face and goes 
his way unpunished. 

"Yes, stone the woman — let the man go free! 
Draw back your skirts lest they, perchance, 
May touch her garments as she passes; 
But to him put forth a willing hand 
To clasp with his which lead her to destruction and 

disgrace. 
Shut up from her the sacred ways of toil that she no 

more may win an 



THE MA FBI AGE BEL ATI ON 107 

Honest meal; but ope to him all honorable 
Paths, where he may win distinction; 
Give to him fair, pressed-down measures of 
Life's sweetest joys. Pass her, O maiden, 
With a pure, proud face, if she put out 
A poor polluted palm; but lay thy hand in 
His on bridal day and swear to cling to him 
With wifely love and tender reverence. 
Trust him who led a sister woman 
To a fearful fate. 

Yes, stone the woman — let the man go free! 
Let one soul suffer for the guilt of two — 
It is the doctrine of a hurried world, 
Too out of breath for holding balances 
Where nice distinctions and injustices 
Are calmly weighed. But ah, how will it be 
On that great day of fire and flame. 
When men shall stand before the one true 
Judge? Shall sex then make a difference in 
Sin? Shall he. the Searcher of the hidden 
Heart, in his eternal and divine decree 
Condemn the woman and forgive the man?" 

3. It may be said that it is generally best for 
those mho are about equal in wealth to marry. 
Many a man will marry a woman, not for love's 
sake, but for the sake of her pocket-book. He 
will doubtless regret it when she wants him to 
economize, reminding him in an unpleasant man- 
ner that her money is meeting expenses. 

Sometimes a woman will marry a man for the 
sake of wearing a title, only to realize that the 
title is about all she does wear. 



108 HOPES THAT PERISH 

A young woman married a man, not for love, 
but for honor, thinking he was much older than 
herself. She was greatly disappointed when she 
found him to be ten years younger than she 
thought him to be. I suppose it occurred to her 
that it would take him that much longer to die. 

There is one respect in which a man and wo- 
man who marry, should differ. I refer to dispo- 
sition. A high-tempered man should seek an 
even-tempered woman. Two persons of very 
high temper married. They quarreled. When 
the storm had subsided, they sat by a blazing fire, 
he in one corner and she in the other. The wife 
observed a playful cat and friendly dog lying very 
contentedly on the hearth. She took in the situa- 
tion and said: 

"Old man, look at that cat and dog. They 
don't quarrel." To which he gravely replied : 
"No, but tie them together and you'll see the fur 
fly." It is sometimes more complimentary to let 
the audience make the application. 

I wish now, in a more general way, to speak of 
some things which this relation demands; for al- 
though I have never been married, I may have 
learned a very few facts from observation. 

It may be asked, "What is true marriage?"' I 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION 109 

can find no better answer than this: The union 
of two hearts in the holiest bonds of love. After 
this union has been made, keep verdant love's 
altar. An aged woman who survived her hus- 
band after sixty years of married life, had this 
carved on his monument: "He was always my 
lover." You should always love your wife as 
tenderly as the day when, before God's altar, you 
promised to love her, comfort her, honor and 
keep her, in sickness and in health. Don't be 
afraid to tell her so, either. 

"Amid the cares of married life. 
In spite of toil and business strife. 
If you value your sweet wife. 
Tell her so! 

Prove to her you don't forget 
The bond to which your seal is set; 
She's of life's sweets the sweetest yet — 
Tell her so! 

When days are dark and deeply blue. 
She has her troubles same as you, 
Show her that your love is true — 
Tell her so! 

In former days you praised her style. 
And spent much time to win her smile: 
'Tis just as well now worth your while — - 
Tell her so! 

Don't act, if she has passed her prime. 
As tho to please her were a crime! 



110 HOPES THAT PERISH 

If e'er you loved her now's the time — 
Tell her so! 

You are hers, and hers alone; 
Well you know she's all your own; 
Don't wait to 'carve it on a stone' — 
Tell her so!" 

This relation calls for much patient forbear- 
ance. A quarrelsome family became noted for 
harmony and good-will. When asked the reason 
the wife replied: "It is because we have two 
bears in the house — bear and forbear." 

After half a century of married life, the Rev. 
Robert Newton said: "I know not that during 
the fifty years of our union an unkind word has 
ever passed between us." 

Would to God such testimony were more uni- 
versal ! But how often feelings are wounded by 
unkind words. 

"How many p'O forth in the morning 
That never come home at night. 

And hearts have broken. 

For harsh words spoken. 
That sorrow can ne'er set right. 
We have careful thoughts for the stranger, 
And smiles for the sometime guest. 

But oft for our own 

The bitter tone, 
Tho we love our own the best. 
Ah! lips with the curve impatient. 



THE MARRIAGE RELATION 111 

Ah! brow with that look of scorn, 

'Twere a cruel fate. 

Were the night too late 
To undo the work of morn." 

Shall I say that this relation demands prayer? 
Indeed it does. Why should not people pray 
over one of the greatest events of life? And yet 
young men and women rush into marriage as if 
it were a trivial affair, requiring little thought, to 
say nothing of prayer. Is it any wonder that so 
many unhappy unions occur? If we believe in 
God's guiding and directing hand in all the affairs 
of life, let us seek it in one of the most important 
epochs in human history. 

Again, this is a relation for life. The contract is 
"Till death do us part." But notwithstanding this 
solemn covenant, the holy bonds are often put 
asunder in a divorce court. We need toning up 
on this subject. There are three thousand courts 
in the United States empowered to grant divorces 
and an average of forty thousand decrees granted 
annually. South Carolina is the only state in the 
Union in which divorces are not granted. While 
population in the United States was increasing 
sixty per cent., divorces increased one hundred 
and fifty-seven per cent. In 1870, the proportion 
of divorces to marriages was one to every six 



112 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

hundred and sixty-nine ; in 1880, one to every 
four hundred and eighty-one; while in 1890 it 
was one to every one hundred and eighty-five. 

Of divorces granted within the last twenty 
years, sixty-five per cent, was granted to wives 
against husbands and thirty-five per cent, to hus- 
bands against wives. The leading grounds for 
divorce are as follows: Desertion 38.54 per 
cent., adultery 20.5 per cent., cruelty 15.7 per 
cent., drunkenness 4.2 per cent., neglect to pro- 
vide 2.4 per cent., other causes 18.8 per cent. 

Dr. J. M. Buckley says: "The condition of 
the public mind upon the subject of divorce is 
deplorable, and nowhere more so than in the 
United States. To assume that the State should 
allow but one cause is to assume what has never 
been proved, whatever the Scriptures may re- 
quire the church to enforce. Several States, like 
New York, allow but one cause ; some, but two 
or three. But so many allow such a number of 
alleged causes, some of which are vague, that it 
becomes a matter of caprice on the part of judges 
whether a decree shall be granted or not." 

I plead for more faithfulness to this sacred re- 
lation, which is the only reminder of man's Eden 
home, and the glories of his lost estate. 



THE MABBIAGE RELATION 113 

I think I may safely say that marriage always 
makes or mars. That was a high compliment to 
a wife's power, when Senator John M. Thurston, 
of Nebraska, said with reference to the death of 
his wife : "In the cable that moored me to life 
and hope the strongest strands are broken." 
Such a woman will refine and soothe man's life, 
irradiate his home and re-enforce him when dis- 
couraged. "The heart of her husband doth safely 
trust in her. She will do him good and not evil 
all the days of her life. She openeth her mouth 
with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of 
kindness. Her price is far above rubies." 

YVe cannot bound her sphere or limit her possi- 
bilities. 

"They talk about a woman's sphere 
As tho it had a limit. 
There's not a place in earth or heaven 
There's not a task to mankind given 
There's not a blessing or a woe. 
There's not a whispered 'yes' or 'no;' 
There's not a life, a death, a birth 
There's not a feather's weight of worth 
Without a woman in it." 

But if John Wesley were here, he could prob- 
ably tell us that a wife's power to torment, when 
she is so disposed, is as great as her influence to 
bless. He suffered enough at her hands, how- 



114 HOPES THAT PERISH 

ever, without having the story of his unhappy 
married life rehearsed to present or future gen- 
erations. 

The New York Times gives an interesting cata- 
logue of women who should never marry. Here 
are some of them : The woman who proudly de- 
clares that she cannot hem a pocket handker- 
chief, never made up a bed in her life, and adds, 
with a simper, that she has ''been in society ever 
since she was sixteen." 

The woman who would rather nurse a pug dog 
than a baby. 

The woman who wants to re-furnish her house 
every Spring. 

The woman who thinks men are angels or 
demigods. 

The woman who would rather die than wear a 
bonnet two seasons old. 

The woman who thinks the cook or nurse can 
keep house. 

The woman who thinks more for the style of 
her cloak than for the comfort of her children. 

What has been said above in regard to a wife's 
power for good or evil, may also apply to a hus- 
band. 

What more shall I say to this large audience of 



THE 3IABBIAGE RELATION 115 

young people? To you young women, who may 
yet enter such a sacred relation, this shall be my 
final word : May one of your brightest and hap- 
piest days be when you shall stand before God's 
altar and swear allegiance to some worthy man. 
He may never be great, but he can be noble, and 
I pray God he may be a good man. For you 
young men, I can cherish no better wish, than 
that your married life may be like that of Lord 
Laurence. After many years of happy wedlock, 
he lay dying. His wife and daughter were stand- 
ing by his bedside. They talked over the happy 
days gone by, when the wife stepped out of the 
room for a moment. Wistfully the eyes of the 
dying man followed her. Then turning his anx- 
ious face to his beloved daughter, he asked: 
"Where has your mother gone?" "She has gone 
out for something," said the daughter. "Papa, 
it seems that you cannot bear to have her out of 
your sight." The father made answer : "That, 
my daughter, is why I married her." 

''There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told. 
Where two that are linked in one heavenly tie. 
With heart never changing and brow never cold. 
Love on through all ill, and love on till they die." 



116 HOPES THAT PEBISH 



X. 
CHRIST'S LAST COMMAND. 

u Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature." — Mark xvi, 15. 

Christ appeared to the disciples after the resur- 
rection and upbraided them because of their hard- 
ness of heart and unbelief. Then before His as- 
cension He gave His last command in the words 
of the text: "Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature." 

Loyalty and love will not permit us to disre- 
gard it. "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever 
I command you." "If ye love me keep my com- 
mandments." 

I. 

The Gospel is the divinely given remedy for this 
world's salvation. 

There is no hope in any other remedy. Con- 
fucius in some respects was a great teacher. For 
instance, the disregard of law among his country- 
men, induced him to examine the ancient w T rit- 
ing;s and, being- satisfied as to their authority to 



CHRIST S LAST COMMAND 117 

check existing" evils, he gathered pupils around 
him that he might impress them with obedience 
to the law. He considered that a happy tran- 
quility could be secured by maintaining the 
sacredness of the universal obligation? of society. 
He also laid special emphasis upon the care and 
education of the young. But as a spiritual ad- 
viser, what has he to say to the longings of a 
deathless soul? He seldom refers to human des- 
tiny. He says: '"To give one's self earnestly to 
the duties due to men,, and while respecting 
spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may 
be called wisdom." 

Turn to Mohammedanism. Its founder used 
the sword for the propagation of his religion. 
He stood by, and watched in silence, the mas- 
sacre of six hundred Jews in one day. Christ, 
is acknowledged to be the greatest prophet next 
to Mohammed, but only a man. The funda- 
mental article of religion is, "There is no God 
but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." 

What can Buddhism do to alleviate sin and 
suffering? It is the religion of five hundred mil- 
lions of people, but it has no God, no heaven, no 
prayer, no pardon, no future life. From begin- 
ning to end it is without one ray of hope. 



118 HOPES THAT PERISH 

We might examine other religious systems 
only to find that when their subjects ask for 
bread they are given a stone. "Lord, to whom 
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal 
life." He opens a path through murky waters. 
He rains manna from heaven. He cleaves the 
rock in life's burning desert. He makes rippling 
streams murmur in the thirsty land. "Behold 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 
the world." It is only when men catch a vision 
of the Christ, that hope dawns, that joy inspires 
and that the heart sings. Guilty man was like 
a broken ship in a storm, no haven in view, no 
life boat in sight, when God marked his signal 
of distress, and out of the opened heavens sent 
One, who, with the strength of His mighty arm, 
beat back the angry waves, pushed His won- 
drous cross within reach of the sinking soul, res- 
cued it from the whelming flood, and brought it 
safe to land. 

II. 

I invite your attention in the second place, to 
the triumphs of the Gospel. The Thracians had a 
very striking emblem to express the power of 
God. It was a sun with three beams — one shin- 
ing upon a sea of ice, and melting it; another 



CHRIST S LAST COMMAND 119 

upon a rock, and dissolving it ; while, the third 
shone upon a dead man, restoring him to life. 
How beautifully this harmonizes with the Gospel 
sun shining upon the hardest heart melting it into 
obedience, and raising the dead in trespasses and 
sins to a life of power and holiness. It cheers the 
broken-hearted. It reconciles the sufferer to his 
cross. It saves Alary Magdalene, and converts 
Saul of Tarsus. This Gospel, preached by Paul 
in the Mamertine prison, broke the power of the 
Roman Empire and gave us Italy for Christ. 
Proclaimed by the eloquent lips of Irenseus, it 
dissipated the darkness of Gaul, and France was 
brought into the Shepherd's fold. So it will, in 
process of time, make itself felt in all kingdoms 
of the earth. All Christendom should be thrilled 
with joy. There are twenty-five thousand con- 
verts in India every year under Methodist mis- 
sions, about the same number under Baptist mis- 
sions, and seventy-five thousand in that one coun- 
try under all missions, and the day is dawning 
when Hindooism will vanish before the light of 
the Gospel. Japan is on her knees, and China is 
crying for mercy. What a day that will be when 
all the earth shall sine: 



120 HOPES THAT PERISH 

"Amazing grace! how sweet the sound 
That saved a wretch like me; 
I once was lost, but now am found; 
Was blind, but now I see." 

The total results of missionary effort are thus 
given by Dennis in his "Foreign Missions after 
a Century:" 

"The Bible has been wholly translated into 
ninety languages and partially into two hundred 
and thirty more. Ten thousand missionaries are 
engaged in the work with forty-four thousand na- 
tive helpers. Over one million have been gath- 
ered into the church, and four millions brought 
beneath the influence of the Gospel. Seventy 
thousand pupils have been taught in higher in- 
stitutions of learning and six hundred and eight 
thousand in village mission schools. 

"Missionary work, however, cannot be wholly 
measured by statistics. The Gospel is the ad- 
vance-guard of civilization. Wherever it goes — 
and it goes everywhere — its heralds stand beneath 
the gleam of the Polar Star and under the splen- 
dor of the Southern Cross — it is the "power of God 
unto salvation;" salvation not only from sin, but 
from ignorance, from cruelty, from sickness, from 
oppression, from despair. All over the world, as 



CHRIST'S LAST COMMAND 121 

the result of missions, the earth is fairer, the air 
is purer, the sky is nearer." 

"The world sits at the feet of Cftrist, 
Unknowing, blind and unconsoled. 
It yet shall touch His garment's fold 
And feel the Heavenly alchemist 
Transform its very dust to gold." 

III. 
Our duty is to preach it to every creature. As 
disciples, we have been taught by Christ. This 
is preliminary to our mission. "As Thou hast 
sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent 
them into the world." Go ye into all the world! 
If not in person, go ye in prayer and giving. In 
obedience to this last command, many have gone, 
others are on the way. The first to go out from 
our church was Melville Beveridge Cox. He 
was appointed to Liberia May 7, 1832. That day 
he sent a letter to a friend saying: "I thirst to 
be on my way. I pray that God may fit my soul 
and body for the duties before me ; that God may 
go with me there. I have no lingering fear. A 
grave in Africa shall be sweet to me, if He sus- 
tain me." Before sailing he visited Wesleyan 
University, Middletown, Conn., and addressed 
the students with great earnestness. To one of 
them he said : 



122 HOPES THAT PERISH 

"If I die in Africa you must come over and 
write my epitaph." The student replied: "I 
will, but what shall I write?" 

"Write," said Cox, "let a thousand fall before 
Africa be given up !" 

He reached Monrovia March 7, 1833. For 
three months he labored zealously for the Master. 
Then African fever seized him. and he passed to 
his reward Sunday morning, July 21, exclaming 
with his last breath, "Lord Jesus, come quickly !" 

The dust of many another hero of the cross 
lies buried beyond the sea. Bishop Kingsley's 
body sleeps in the lands of Syria, Bishop Coke's 
in the trackless depths of the Indian ocean, while 
Bishop Wiley found a grave in China. Time will 
not permit me to mention others. I must, how- 
ever, address this burning question to each one of 
you: What shall be your response? 

In time of war loyal people are all at the front. 
The wife goes by proxy when she sends her hus- 
band ; the mother, when she commissions her 
boy to go. 

And whose heart has not been thrilled by the 
story of valor displayed on the field of death ? I 
remember to have read of such an instance dur- 
ing- the recent war with Spain. The hero was 



CHBIST'S LAST COMMAND 128 

Allen K. Capron, who commanded troop L, 
of the Rough Riders, in the assault upon the 
Spanish outposts. Xone but those who passed 
through it will ever know the hardships of that 
morning march before the fight. All was new to 
the Americans. After the transports landed 
they spent one night of broken sleep on the 
heated beach, and with day-break came the order 
to march into the mountains and drive back the 
Spanish outpost which the Cubans reported to be 
in the thicket only a few miles from the coast. 
They marched up the mountain. The tropical 
sun poured down upon them. Their feet were 
bleeding. Their hands were torn by cactus 
thorns. Their lips were parched with thirst. 
On they went. 

Then like a sudden dash of rain came the storm 
of Spanish bullets. In every direction Mauser 
rifles cracked and the thicket was ablaze with 
death flashes. Then Captain Capron and his 
men dashed forward. It was an awful hour. 
They fought like demons. The brave Captain 
stood erect in the act of leveling his pistol to 
fire when he was struck by a bullet and the re- 
volver dropped from his hand. He sank to the 
ground, his left hand pressed to his side, but his 



124 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

right hand still pointing toward the enemy. Sev- 
eral comrades gathered about him, but he mo- 
tioned them away, saying : 

"Don't mind me, boys ; go into the thicket." 
While dying the brave man heard his men push- 
ing on to the fight, and while the light was fast 
fading from his eyes, he saw the Spaniards re- 
treating down the hill toward Santiago. 

And now the application. If men so bravely 
and willingly surrender life in the cause of 
humanity to relieve bodily suffering, what shall 
we do to break the shackles that bind captive 
souls? Touched by the wail that comes from 
over the seas, shall we refuse to hasten with eager 
feet and tell the story of God's redeeming love? 
Oh, no ! no ! I cannot believe it. 

"Shall we whose souls are lighted, 

With wisdom from on high, 
Shall we to men benighted 

The lamp of life deny? 
Salvation! O salvation! 

The joyful sound proclaim. 
Till earth's remotest nation 

Has learned Messiah's name." 

Leonidas, the brave Grecian general, when en- 
tering the battle of Thermopylae, uttered this 
vow : "Witness ye rocks and hills, I swear 
Greece shall be free." 



CHRIS T S LAST COM MA ND 1 25 

The recorded vow of every soldier of the cross 
should be : Witness, oh God ! the nations of the 
earth shall be free — free from the power and 
thralldom of sin. 

The cry is often raised that missionary socie- 
ties are extravagant ; that "it costs a dollar to 
send a dollar." 

That I might show the falsity of this statement, 
I wrote to the Bureau of Social Economics, St. 
Louis, Mo., of which I am a member, asking for a 
tabulated statement showing what per cent, of 
every dollar contributed for foreign missionary 
purposes is sent abroad. Here is the reply : 
"Methodist church, ninety-five -per cent. ; Bap- 
tist church, ninety-four and one-half per cent. ; 
Congregational church, ninety-two per cent. ; 
Presbyterian church, ninety-four per cent. ; Re- 
formed church, ninety-five per cent." 

I am convinced that we are not measuring up 
to our ability and obligation in missionary effort. 
All the protestant churches of the United States 
give annually to foreign missions, $11,250,000. 

This is but an average per capita contribution 
of thirty-two cents. 

The average cost of every heathen conversion 
is $135.97. Accordingly, it requires the contri- 



126 HOPES THAT PE1USH 

butions of four hundred and twenty-five persons 
to save one soul. 

If the Methodist Episcopal Church should suc- 
ceed in gathering a million and a quarter every 
year for the Missionary Societv, it would 
only represent about forty-five cents for each 
member, or an average of less than one cent a 
week. Amazing parsimony ! May the love of 
Christ constrain us to greater faithfulness to His 
last command ! For, as Dr. Carroll says : "If 
a man truly loves Christ, he must love His cause, 
and what is His cause but the saving of man? 
There is nothing in the universe of half so much 
value as men. God indicated His etstimate of 
their value when He gave His only begotten Son 
to redeem them. It was His will that the glori- 
ous race of martyrs should arise on Calvary and 
be perpetuated through the centuries that we 
might come to a knowledge of the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life. The riches of grace which 
we enjoy have been accumulated for us through 
blood, and sweat, and tears and continuous sac- 
rifice. How can we be indifferent Christians? 
Where is our sense of gratitude? Where is our 
love for God? Where is our love for man? 
Where is our spirit of sacrifice? Have we no 
care how the campaign for Christ goes in the 






CHRIST'S LAST COMMAND 127 

world? Shall we withhold not only ourselves, but 
our means from the service of the King- against 
the forces of evil? Are we to receive all and give 
nothing? Surely, we dare not thus rob God !" 

I read an incident in the Christian Observer, 
which stirred my very soul. A minister had 
made an earnest appeal for help in the support of 
a little mission church among the mountains. 
The response was not very generous. In the 
audience sat a little crippled girl. She had hob- 
bled out to church on her crutch. When the man 
who was taking up the scanty collection came to 
where she was sitting, she extended to him the 
polished crutch. He carried it forward to the 
minister who took it saying: "Do you see it my 
people ; little crippled Maggie's crutch — all she 
has to make life comfortable? Does anyone want 
to contribute to the mission cause the amount of 
money this crutch would bring, and give it back 
to the child who is so helpless without it?" 

The sublimity of the child's renunciation elec- 
trified the audience and the subscribing went on, 
until six hundred dollars were piled upon the 
table. 

Then they brought the crutch back to Maggie, 
telling her she had preached the greatest mis- 
sionary sermon the church had ever heard. 



128 HOPES THAT PEBISH 

' "I dare not work my soul to save, 
That work my Lord has done: 
But I will work like any slave, 
For love of God's dear Son." 

When a gentleman had related to a Quaker a 
tale of terrible suffering, he concluded by saying : 

"I could not but feel for him." 

The Quaker replied : 

"Verily, friend, thou didst right in that thou 
didst feel for him ; but didst thou feel in the 
right place? Didst thou feel in thy pocket?" 

We feel for those who are in darkness and sin, 
but what is needed is, to have feeling transmitted 
into giving. 

Just now a Divine hand is opening doors in 
Porto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippine Islands. 
Let the blessed work be undertaken. Go, thrust 
in thy sickle. And blessed be God for the privil- 
ege. A Spartan, who had distinguished himself 
in battle, was wounded. The king bent over him 
and asked, "What wilt thou? A wreath, a noble 
title? What wilt thou?" He replied, "Let me 
march, O king, in the van of the army." O com- 
rades of the blood-red cross, there is no higher 
honor than this — marching in the van of the 
army ! 



MAH 



& 1899 



1 



